


skating in circles around you

by lk321



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Hockey, M/M, Mentioned Other K-pop Artist(s), Romance, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-31
Updated: 2021-01-17
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:02:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 39,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26220826
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lk321/pseuds/lk321
Summary: As the JYP University hockey team gears up for a new season, it becomes increasingly obvious something's going on between their captains, Chan and Minho. They're closer than friends, yet no matter how much their younger teammates pry, they stubbornly insist that they're nothing more.While each dealing with relationships troubles of their own, their teammates are left watching Chan and Minho skate circles around the topic of their relationship. Little do they know, it's up to them to give Chan and Minho the push they need to face their feelings once and for all.
Relationships: Bang Chan/Lee Minho | Lee Know, Han Jisung | Han/Lee Felix, Hwang Hyunjin/Seo Changbin, Kim Seungmin/Yang Jeongin | I.N
Comments: 61
Kudos: 241





	1. Welcome to the Team

**Author's Note:**

> it’s stanley cup season, so here’s stray kids as hockey players lol.

Jeongin had been the first to mention it.

It was about a week into training, and Chan, the captain of the JYP University club hockey team, had invited everyone to his place as a way for the freshmen to get to know the team.

“No pressure if you can’t make it though. I know many of you have morning classes and work to do,” Chan had added, all smiles as he wiped the sweat from his curly dark hair after Wednesday’s practice. Chan was a broad-shouldered, well-built defenseman with a radiant smile that naturally seemed to put people at ease. When he seemed convinced that no one looked pressured by his invitation, he turned to the man beside him.

“Minho, you have anything to add?”

Minho was the assistant captain, though Jeongin knew him better as their team’s only goalie. He was a sharp contrast to Chan’s warm presence, lithe and catlike in the way he surveyed the locker room with a purposely composed look of lazy indifference. Finally, he shrugged.

“Don’t come if you’re looking to get drunk, and don’t come if you’re already drunk. That’s all.”

“Minho!” Chan hissed, slapping Minho on the shoulder. As Minho made a face and rubbed his shoulder in pain, Chan put on his best apologetic smile. “Anyways, what Minho means is the purpose of this gathering will be to get to know each other. Any questions?”

No one spoke up, though Jeongin did catch Jisung, their team’s star center, whispering something that sounded suspiciously like “alcohol” into the ear of a defenseman who had a foreign name Jeongin hadn’t quite remembered.

“Great, then we’ll see some of you later then. Good practice, everyone!” Chan grinned, and he hoisted his bag onto his shoulder and headed out, Minho trailing after him, dragging along his bulky goalie bag.

The locker room burst into conversation the moment their captains left. Jeongin waited for Seungmin, a high school friend and his only friend in college so far, to finish packing his equipment into his hockey bag. The two of them bid goodbye to their rowdier teammates and headed out.

As they left the rink, Seungmin asked, “You going to the party?”

Jeongin shrugged.

He did have some homework he was probably better off doing, but he was also in desperate need of more friends, and his hockey teammates had all seemed nice enough. Not that he wouldn’t love to only hang out with Seungmin, but Jeongin doubted it was a good idea to have the person you’d been secretly in love with for years as your only friend in college.

Seungmin started to say something, but Jeongin was distracted when he suddenly caught sight of Chan and Minho further out ahead of them in the parking lot. Chan was cheerfully packing their hockey bags and sticks into the trunk of a small sedan, while Minho was leaning casually against the front passenger door, twirling the car keys with one finger and a warm smile dangling on his lips as he chatted with Chan.

Jeongin had to do a double take. It was probably the happiest he’d ever seen their goalie look. He watched as Minho tossed Chan the keys before the two of them climbed into the car and drove off, EDM music blasting loudly through their half open windows.

Jeongin couldn’t shake the feeling that he’d just witnessed a private moment that he hadn’t been supposed to see.

“Jeongin, hurry up!” Seungmin called from a few steps ahead. “You’re adorable, but I’m not treating you to food if you stall any longer!”

Jeongin hurried after Seungmin, making faces at Seungmin while shaking his head.

Lost in the eager anticipation of Seungmin treating him to food, the scene of Chan and Minho fades to the back of his mind.

Maybe it was just a trick of the light.

* * *

It was not a trick of the light.

Jeongin was currently seated in the living room of Chan’s place.

Technically speaking, it was his and Minho’s place. They were the only seniors on the team, Chan had wanted a place to host hockey parties, and Minho had wanted a place to raise his cat. They’d opted to rent a two-bedroom apartment off-campus together, which explained why Jeongin had seen them get into Chan’s car together.

It did not explain why the two seniors were currently nestled together on the couch as Chan worked on his laptop, Minho leaning into his side with a cat sleeping in his lap with his head on Chan’s shoulder.

Jeongin looked around at the circle he was sitting in.

Most of the team had apparently taken Chan’s words seriously, because other than him and Seungmin, only four other people had shown up to the party, and no one was paying their captains any attention.

Jisung and the defenseman he’d been talking to in the locker room, who Jeongin had learned was named Felix were huddled together across from Jeongin. Both were sneaking glances at Minho while sipping from bottles of soda, but they seemed so concerned about hiding the fact that their soda was most definitely spiked with alcohol that they made no mention about Minho’s behavior.

Meanwhile, to Jisung’s right was Hyunjin, another defenseman and one of the fastest skaters Jeongin had ever seen. He currently had one arm looped casually over Seungmin’s shoulder as they snickered at Jisung and Felix’s antics together.

Ignoring the flicker of irritation in his chest, Jeongin turned his attention back to the teammate sitting next to him.

Changbin was the other center on the team and the only junior present. Unlike the others, he’d been doing his best to entertain Jeongin and was currently showing him a video compilation of best shoot out goals. He hadn’t noticed that Jeongin wasn’t paying any attention, too busy watching the video with a lopsided grin that completely destroyed his initial impression of Changbin as that of a serious, intimidating hockey player.

Minho hadn’t bothered to join the circle in the first place, and about an hour into the party, Chan had excused himself to work on an assignment that had suddenly come up. It was why the two seniors were now in a world to themselves on the couch, and Jeongin had witnessed the exact moment when Chan had sat down on one end of the couch only for Minho to immediately get up from his end to sit down right next to Chan.

The longer Jeongin observed them, the more curious and confused Jeongin felt.

Jeongin knew such levels of affection was normal sometimes between friends, but Minho had given Jeongin every impression of being an aloof cat dad. Minho made faces whenever Chan tried showering him with affection for every good save he made in goal, and he never hesitated to snark back at Chan teasingly whenever the two communicated on the ice.

Was this current behavior also normal for Minho? Was Jeongin just supposed to accept that it was perfectly reasonable for Minho to now be snuggled up to Chan like a clingy puppy?

Changbin finally seemed to realize Jeongin wasn’t paying any attention because he felt Changbin poke him in the arm and comment, “You look troubled. Something on your mind?”

“Ah, no, I was just—”

Before Jeongin could finish, Jisung leaned forward with wide, shining eyes.

“Our baby freshman troubled? We can’t have that!”

“Yeah!” Felix echoed, his cheeks dusted pink and his freckles now showing quite prominently on his cheeks. “We might not be much older than you, but since Chan’s busy, it’s our job to welcome you to the team!”

Changbin shot Jisung and Felix a glare. “That’s what I’ve been doing this whole time!”

“By showing him shoot out compilations?” Seungmin teased, his eyes twinkling as he winked at Jeongin, who stuck his tongue out at him and batted Seungmin away when he tried to pull Jeongin towards him.

Meanwhile, Hyunjin laughed, “Come on, Changbin, we’ve all seen Jeongin play. He’s good enough to be in those videos!”

Changbin turned to Jeongin with an embarrassed look. “Ah, sorry, was I boring you?”

“No, no!” Jeongin hastily smiled, relieved when Changbin regains his grin. “It was interesting, I was just… thinking about something else.”

“Oh? Anything we can help with?” Jisung offered with a vibrant grin. “Granted, we’re probably only good for answering questions related to hockey or our majors, but still, anything for our favorite freshman.”

Jeongin wondered how much of that was due to him being the only freshman present but ultimately chose not to comment on it.

Maybe he’d break out the sarcasm once he got to know his teammates better.

For now, with some boosted confidence as Seungmin supportively patted Jeongin on the back, Jeongin slowly started, “Well, it’s probably none of my business, so you don’t really have to answer but…”

Pointing as discreetly as he could towards Chan and Minho, Jeongin whispered, “Are they dating?”

Seungmin’s eyes widened briefly before he burst into laughter, slapping Jeongin painfully on the back.

“Chan and Minho?” Jeongin cringed a little at how loud Seungmin’s voice was, but luckily, the two people in question didn’t seem to hear him. Seungmin cackled, “Are you serious, Jeongin? Those two would never—”

It was almost hilarious, the way a dumbfounded look immediately crossed Seungmin’s face as the gears started turning in his head. One look around at the others sitting in their circle however, only left Jeongin feeling more confused than anything else. The other sophomores looked equally as dumbfounded as Seungmin did, while Changbin alone squinted his eyes at Chan and Minho.

“Wait,” Jisung whispered, still too loudly. He leaned in, pulling Felix and Hyunjin forward with him as he dramatically looked around the circle. “ _Are_ they dating?”

“You don’t know?” Jeongin asked incredulously.

“I mean, it never crossed my mind,” Felix admitted, twisting his head around to stare at Chan and Minho.

Somehow, in the time since Jeongin had last glanced at them, they had gotten even more disgustingly domestic. Minho’s cat had wandered off somewhere, and Minho was now just blatantly laying with his head in Chan’s lap, contently watching whatever it was that Chan was working on as Chan typed on his laptop with one hand and ran his fingers through Minho’s hair absentmindedly with the other.

“Holy shit, they’re totally dating,” Hyunjin gasped, dramatically clutching at Jisung’s shirt. “How did we not notice before?”

“It’s because they’ve tricked us into thinking their behavior is normal,” Changbin mused, pursing his lips at Chan and Minho before slapping Jeongin on the back. “Good work, Jeongin. I knew you were a perfect addition to this team from the moment I saw you.”

“Thanks?” Jeongin grimaced as he made a mental note to not sit within Changbin’s reach next time. Changbin might’ve been small for a hockey player, but man was he strong.

Changbin cleared his throat and suddenly bellowed out, “Lee Minho!”

Minho startled at the sound of Changbin’s voice and sat up so fast that Jisung and Felix doubled over in laughter. Chan didn’t react, but Jeongin swore he caught Chan looking terribly disappointed when he glanced down at his hand that was now no longer in Minho’s hair.

“Seo Changbin!” Minho shouted, a dangerous glint in his eyes that made Jisung and Felix stop laughing immediately. “What are you shouting for?”

“You! And Chan!” Changbin pointed back and forth between Minho and Chan. “You’re dating and you didn’t tell us?”

Chan and Minho exchanged looks of such genuine confusion that it left Jeongin thoroughly confused too.

Slowly, a smile crawled back onto Minho’s face. “Chan, you didn’t tell me we were dating.”

“This is news to me too,” Chan laughed. “What makes you think we’re dating?”

“Minho literally had his head in your lap!” Hyunjin exclaimed.

“That’s how he always acts,” Chan replied, as if it explained everything.

“How can you say that and still say you’re not dating?” Jisung insisted.

“We’re not dating,” Minho snorted, rolling his eyes.

“ _We’re not dating_ ,” Jisung mimicked mockingly, making huge gestures with his hand. Unluckily for him and Felix, Jisung had clearly forgotten about the drink in his hand, and it spilled all over the two sophomores and onto the floor.

Jeongin scrambled up to grab some tissues to mop up the mess. It earned him a grateful smile from Minho, which left him with a surprisingly warm feeling inside. Maybe Minho wasn’t as cold as he’d initially thought.

Minho offered a towel to Felix with a gentle smile, before roughly shoving some paper towels in Jisung’s face. With an affectionate tone that didn’t match his annoyed expression, Minho said, “Seriously, Jisung, you’re such a mess.”

“My best friend is lying to me about being in a relationship!” Jisung protested, flailing as he tried to fight off Minho as he wiped Jisung’s face fondly.

“I am not dating Chan,” Minho repeated. Before Jisung could open his mouth again, Minho shot a glare around at everyone in the circle. “And anyone who mentions this nonsense again is doing laps for all of tomorrow’s practice.”

“What? Chan would never let you do that to us!” Hyunjin shouted.

“Actually, some of you could definitely work on your endurance…” Chan mused teasingly, his eyes trailing over Jisung and Hyunjin, who immediately sidled up to their captain, whining and pleading with him. Meanwhile, Felix and Seungmin had joined Jeongin in his efforts to clean up Jisung’s mess. Felix was muttering about how Minho would kill them if he realized Jisung’s spilled soda had alcohol in it, much to Seungmin’s amusement.

Jeongin glanced up at Minho, wondering if the older had overheard them, but the look on Minho’s face suddenly made him pause.

At this point, Jeongin had realized that he’d been wrong in his initial assumption of Minho. The overwhelming love Minho had for his friends and teammates was just as much part of his personality as the aloof, serious Minho that Jeongin had seen during practice. If Chan and Minho said they weren’t dating, then Jeongin had been ready to believe that maybe Chan and Minho were just overly affectionate friends.

Now, he wasn’t too sure.

There was something terribly sad about the fond look in Minho’s eyes, like he was looking at a prize just out of his reach.

It was an expression Jeongin knew well.

Jeongin stared at Seungmin like that way too often after all.

Before Jeongin could even look around to see if anyone else had noticed, Minho’s eyes shifted towards Jeongin. Immediately any trace of sadness vanished as Minho flashed Jeongin a cheerful grin.

“Hey Jeongin, you’ve helped enough with the cleaning,” Minho said, gesturing for Jeongin to come over. “Come look for Dori with me. I want to introduce you to him.”

Changbin let out a low whistle from where he’d remained seated, cheerfully watching the chaos unfold around them. He leaned over towards Jeongin and giggled, “Minho must really like you. I helped Chan and Minho move in, and he still wouldn’t let me near his cat.”

Jeongin nodded and began to get up on his feet when Changbin suddenly tugged him closer and whispered into his ear, “Also, try to stay on Minho’s good side, okay? We probably shouldn’t try forcing him to talk about his… feelings.”

One glance at Changbin’s sincere eyes was enough for Jeongin to know.

Jeongin wasn’t the only one who had seen the longing in Minho’s eyes.

And until Minho chose to reveal it himself, the fact that they’d seen anything at all was going to remain Changbin and Jeongin’s little secret.


	2. Practicing the Power Play

“Kim Seungmin, if you don’t get out of my way…!”

“Not a chance, Minho,” Seungmin snickered, shifting again on the ice so he was standing soundly in front of Minho, doing his best to block Minho’s line of sight.

He felt Minho give him a slight shove in the back, but Seungmin dug his skates harder in the ice, refusing to back down.

“Hyunjin! Do your job and get this puppy out of my way!” Minho shouted just as Felix, far away at the blue line, took a shot on goal. Seungmin twisted sideways just in time, lifting his stick slightly. He managed to get a little piece of the puck with the edge of his stick, and the puck deflected into the net, right past Minho’s outstretched leg.

Minho’s swearing was drowned out as Seungmin yelled in victory and scurried away from Minho. He skated straight towards Felix, leaping towards him for a hug.

Meanwhile, Hyunjin, who’d been way out of position, turned back towards Minho with an apologetic look.

“Sorry, that was totally my fault, wasn’t it?” Hyunjin gloomily said, watching as the other team surrounded Seungmin and took turns giving the forward head pats. He had to smile though, when he caught Jeongin shyly giving Seungmin a hug, only for Seungmin to take full advantage of the situation as he latched onto Jeongin like a leech.

“Hyunjin, I know you don’t like being pushy, but in a real game, you can’t just let an opposing player be open like that,” Minho sighed. He skated forwards a bit and reassuringly gave Hyunjin a pat on the back. “Come on, keep your head up. We’re not going to let them score like that again, got it?”

Hyunjin smiled back and nodded as Coach Wang blew the whistle, summoning everyone back to center ice to start the drill again.

They were currently at practice, working on their power play and penalty kill. Hyunjin was on the defending team, playing alongside Changbin at center, another forward named Hongjoong, and a freshman defenseman whose name Hyunjin had forgotten and now was too embarrassed to ask.

Seungmin and Felix were on the other team with the power play, along with Jeongin and Jisung as the other forwards, and Chan as the other D. Hyunjin thought it honestly wasn’t fair on the coach’s part to stack the offensive team with the team’s best players. Then again, Hyunjin supposed the five of them _were_ the ones who would realistically be on the power play in a game anyways, so there wasn’t any point in complaining. Besides, technically, Hyunjin’s team had Minho, who was one of the best goalies in the league, at least when Hyunjin didn’t get too lost in the game and forget that he wasn’t supposed to let players like Seungmin just park themselves freely in front of the net.

When the coach finished giving pointers to everyone, he raised the whistle back to his mouth. Waiting at the center line, Chan took the chance to shout, “Hey, Minho! Feel free to let the next one in too!”

“In your dreams, Chan!” Minho shouted back, though his eyes caught Hyunjin’s, as if to remind him of his job.

“Less trash talking, more playing, captains!” Coach Wang shouted before he blew the whistle and shot a puck deep into the zone.

Hyunjin was the first to reach the puck, stopping it behind the net. As a former figure skater, he was glad he at least had speed and skating skill on his side, but Hyunjin couldn’t help but groan in frustration when his attempt to clear the puck out of the zone was stopped soundly by a waiting Chan at the boards.

“Get back in the game, Hyunjin! Don’t give up on the play!” Coach Wang shouted from the neutral zone, as Chan passed the puck back to the blue line to Jisung.

Hyunjin hustled back to the front of the net, where Seungmin and Minho were bickering again. In the corner of his eye, Hyunjin saw the freshman D battling it out with Jeongin, rather successfully keeping Jeongin from getting near the goalie’s crease.

“Sorry, Seungmin, but I’m gonna need you to move,” Hyunjin muttered, leaning into Seungmin and trying to move him out of the way.

“You gotta shove harder than that, Hyunjin,” Minho snapped from behind, leaning far to one side to peer out from behind them.

Hyunjin grit his teeth and doubled down, pushing harder against Seungmin, who pushed back, their sticks clashing. It wasn’t much, but at least Seungmin wasn’t chirping at Minho anymore, so when Jisung swiveled around and passed the puck back to Chan who wound his stick back, Minho was able to block the slapshot with ease and leap upon the puck with his glove.

Coach Wang blew the whistle, signaling the play was dead.

Seungmin immediately let up on the pressure, patting Hyunjin on the back. Hyunjin grinned at his friend, though in the corner of his eye, he caught Jeongin not so subtly staring darkly at Hyunjin. He tried pointing it out to Seungmin, but he was quickly distracted when Minho tauntingly waved the puck in his glove at Chan and shouted, “Take that, Chan!”

“Fuck you!” Chan made a poor attempt at giving Minho the middle finger, which didn’t look like much with his hockey glove on.

“Chan! Watch your language!” the coach shouted.

Seungmin shook his head at the situation, though he caught a smirk lining Hyunjin’s lips.

Hyunjin leaned towards Seungmin and muttered under his breath, “Bet Minho would like that.”

Seungmin snorted loudly at that, but so did Changbin, who was a distance aways by the red face-off dot.

So maybe Hyunjin hadn’t been quiet enough.

Hyunjin braced himself as he turned around towards the net. Sure enough, Minho’s eyes were glinting darkly at Hyunjin, one eyebrow raised and his lips pressed thinly together.

“Uh, sorry, I shouldn’t have said that,” Hyunjin hastily apologized, but it was too late.

Minho wrenched off his helmet with one hand and bellowed out, “Coach! Seungmin and Hyunjin said they wanted to do laps for the rest of practice!”

“Laps?” Coach Wang looked puzzled as he scratched his head. “Well, we’re done with the drill, and there’s only ten minutes left of practice, so if that’s what they want…?”

Hyunjin groaned but didn’t complain. He definitely deserved that.

Seungmin, however, wasn’t about to go down without a fight. He shouted, “We’d love that, Coach! I really think the entire team would benefit from it!”

“Seungmin, no!” Changbin hissed, rushing over to slap a hand on the cage of Seungmin’s helmet where Seungmin’s mouth would be, which honestly had zero effect on shutting him up.

“All right then,” Coach Wang said, completely ignoring the chorus of whines that had erupted throughout the team. “Let’s get going, boys! We’ve got a game this weekend. We need to make sure you’re all in shape!”

Seungmin cackled, high-fiving Hyunjin as the two of them raced away out of the reach of a wrathful Changbin, who was joined by Jisung and Felix as they yelled profanities while chasing after Seungmin and Hyunjin. The rest of the team came off the bench, groaning as they sluggishly began to skate down the length of the rink.

The last ten minutes of practice ended in typical JYP University club hockey fashion.

By the end of it, Seungmin had been successfully caught and buried under a dog pile of his teammates. Hyunjin had quickly given up on doing laps, dragging his skates along the ice as he showed off some figure skating moves to Jeongin and Yedam, the freshman D whose name Hyunjin had finally caught someone saying, while Changbin trailed lazily after them, watching over them fondly and whistling at Hyunjin whenever he did a fancy move. Jisung and Felix had also attempted to continue doing laps too, but they’d been so busy inventing more and more creative ways to practice their falling between the blue lines that they were spending more time cackling as they skidded across the ice on their butts than they were actually skating.

Only Minho and Chan were still diligently doing laps by the end.

Chan was powering down the ice while Minho continued slowly after him in his signature waddle, looking like a mountainous bulk of hockey gear gliding across the ice. He was making slow progress, and Chan easily passed Minho at least three or four times before Minho could even complete one lap.

At some point, the team seemed to have come to a collective agreement to just stop and watch their captains skate in circles around and around the rink. Even their coach remained at center ice, not even bothering to yell at the rest of the team to stop lazing around as he watched over Chan and Minho with a fond smile.

It was an oddly soothing effect, listening to the sound of metal blades carving into the ice, broken only by the sound of Chan and Minho’s voices teasing each other whenever Chan inevitably passed Minho again.

And if anyone saw Chan winking at Minho every time Chan passed him, or Minho making kissy faces back to send Chan skating away with reddened cheeks, they certainly knew not to mention it.


	3. Confessions in the Cafeteria

After practice, the team had the tendency to split up at the rink based on who was leaving the locker room at the same time, only to end up seeing each other again, scattered throughout the dining hall.

It was why Seungmin and Hyunjin were currently eating dinner together with a clear view of all the various clusters of hockey teammates who were also finishing up their meals. Seungmin had tried to rope Jeongin along again with the promise of paying for his food, but Jeongin had opted to go eat with Yedam. The two of them were getting progressively closer with each practice, but while Seungmin was glad that Jeongin was making friends, he’d be lying if he said he wasn’t in a bad mood because of it.

Hyunjin, bless his heart, was chattering away like usual. Seungmin liked listening to Hyunjin talk. He had a knack for taking Seungmin’s mind off things, though Seungmin was currently guilty of not listening closely enough, too busy staring at Jeongin as he finished up his dinner with Yedam a few tables away.

His focus was broken when he heard Hyunjin exclaim, “Okay, so maybe they’re not dating, but they’re totally in love with each other, right? I mean, look at them!”

Seungmin’s heart leapt to his throat, but he breathed a sigh in relief when he realized Hyunjin wasn’t pointing at Jeongin and Yedam. After calming himself down, Seungmin raised an eyebrow and looked over in the direction Hyunjin was pointing at.

It was Chan and Minho, sitting at a table by themselves in the corner of the dining hall. Chan was currently showing something to Minho on his laptop, with their chairs pulled up next to each other and their heads nearly touching as they shared a pair of earphones. Minho had an expression of intense concentration on his face, while Chan watched him with an incredibly goofy smile.

“That’s how they’re always like,” Seungmin commented, though he had to admit, they probably looked like a couple to anyone else.

As if one cue, a familiar pair walked up to Chan and Minho.

It was Hongjoong and his boyfriend, Seonghwa, a senior who often showed up to their home games. While Seungmin wasn’t particularly close with either of them, Seonghwa might as well have been the team’s official cheerleader at this point, so he was a friendly face for the members of the team.

There weren’t many people left in the dining hall at this time in the evening. Because of that, Hongjoong’s voice carried through the air as he said, “Hey, Chan, Minho! What’re you up to?”

Chan smiled up at Hongjoong, but Seungmin wasn’t able to catch what he said in reply. Hyunjin continued watching them with intense interest, but Seungmin just shook his head and returned to his food.

He’d been caught off guard when Jeongin had asked if Chan and Minho were dating at the party last week. In hindsight, Seungmin supposed it was an obvious question to ask, but he hadn’t expected it from Jeongin of all people. As far as Seungmin knew, Jeongin was as dense as a brick when it came to romance.

The thought made Seungmin chew harder on his food.

Seungmin thought of himself as a patient person. It took patience after all, to flirt with someone for years with no success, but Seungmin had persisted, clinging hopefully to the moments when Jeongin had behaved in a way that suggested Seungmin’s feelings might be reciprocated.

Yet now, Jeongin was making new friends in college, and he had an entire hockey team’s worth of people to dote on him now too.

Seungmin wondered if it was selfish to want to keep Jeongin to himself, if it was wrong to feel scared that Jeongin might drift away, that someone else might pop into Jeongin’s life and sweep him away out of Seungmin’s reach.

Luckily, he was distracted from his thoughts as a rare moment of silence in the dining hall allowed Seonghwa’s voice to carry clearly to where Seungmin and Hyunjin were sitting.

“Oh, that’s right, I’ve been meaning to message you guys. ” Seonghwa said, pulling out what looked like a business card and handing it to Minho. “A new cat cafe opened up downtown, and I think it’d be a cute place for you guys to go on a date.”

“A cat cafe?” Minho looked exuberant, delight flooding his face. “Ooh, Chan, we definitely have to go!”

Chan didn’t share Minho’s enthusiasm. He was looking at Seonghwa quite awkwardly as he stammered, “A-a date?”

“Yeah,” Seonghwa replied, looking confused as to why Hongjoong looked like he was about to burst into laughter. Chan was turning redder by the second. “I know you two have your own place now, but you still go on dates, right? They’re even having a discount after your guys’ game on Saturday, so you should definitely—Hongjoong! What’s so funny?”

Hongjoong finally let loose a laugh as he clutched onto his boyfriend’s arm. “Seonghwa, they’re not dating! They’re just—”

It was comical how a stunned look immediately crossed Hongjoong’s face as he snapped his head towards Chan and Minho. Seungmin had to wonder if that’s what they all had looked like to Jeongin back at the party.

Hongjoong gasped and mouthed something to Chan and Minho that they couldn’t hear, but Seungmin could bet it was something along the lines of, “Wait, _are you dating_?”

Chan quickly shook his head, probably denying it hastily, but whatever he said was drowned out by Hyunjin’s high pitched laughter that echoed through the dining hall. Seungmin immediately slapped Hyunjin on the shoulder, trying to get him to calm down, but it was too late.

Minho had looked over and caught them staring, and now he was storming over with a fire in his eyes as Chan continued to banter and deflect with Hongjoong and Seonghwa.

“Seems like someone didn’t do enough laps at practice today,” Minho huffed, pulling up a chair and sitting down crossly in front of Seungmin and Hyunjin.

“Seems like someone’s running from the situation,” Seungmin retorted under his breath. Minho raised a fist at him, and Seungmin raised his own fist back, daring Minho to come at him with a cheeky grin.

Minho rolled his eyes, leaning back into his chair with a huff. “I’m not running from anything.”

“Really? You were so excited to go on your cat cafe date with Chan until it got called a date,” Hyunjin chimed in.

Minho immediately rounded on him, eyes flaring. Hyunjin shrunk back, clinging onto Seungmin as he muttered, “Sorry, sorry!”

“You’re lucky you’re cute,” Minho scoffed, reaching over to pinch Hyunjin’s cheeks, but as expected, Minho’s facade of irritation was quick to fade into a grin as well. “Anyways, there’s nothing going on between me and Chan, seriously. You two are way too persistent for people who don’t know anything about dating.”

Seungmin rolled his eyes, but Hyunjin didn’t mind Minho’s little jab.

“He’s got a point, Seungmin,” Hyunjin laughed, clinging even tighter to Seungmin as he tucked his chin over Seungmin’s shoulder. “You can’t even confess to your crush.”

Seungmin grumpily sipped on his water, though he appreciated that Minho had simply raised his eyebrows but kept quiet at the information. It was fun teasing Minho and Chan, but moments like these reminded Seungmin that maybe he ought to let them off for now.

“Don’t tease Seungmin too much, Hyunjin,” Minho ended up saying, giving Seungmin more reason to be nicer to Minho. “It’s not like you’re much better.”

“Actually, I am in fact seeing someone, so you’re wrong,” Hyunjin proudly replied.

Minho raised his eyebrows at Hyunjin in disbelief. “Really? Who?”

“Changbin,” Seungmin answered as he turned back to his food.

Minho’s eyes widened so much, it looked like they would fall right out his head. Minho mouthed in shock, “Changbin? Since when?”

“We met up a few times in the middle of the summer and decided maybe we could try out being in a relationship,” Hyunjin shrugged. “We haven’t bothered telling anyone because we decided it’s not going to be that serious, but that’s still more relationship experience than either of you, so I think I’ve got every right to tease you both.”

Minho opened his mouth as if to say something, but then he just closed his mouth again, glancing towards Seungmin, who shrugged in response.

Seungmin was well aware of Hyunjin’s “fling”, as Hyunjin liked to call it. Hyunjin had told him all about it the day he and Changbin had gotten together, and Seungmin had listened, as usual, as Hyunjin gushed about how he couldn’t believe he was now dating “the hottest player on the hockey team.”

Seungmin was happy for Hyunjin. Truly. But it was hard not to feel worried when Hyunjin talked about his relationship like it wasn’t an emotional investment, especially after he’d spent so much of last year crushing on Changbin.

Hyunjin and Changbin had been so low-key about their relationship that even Seungmin forgot they were dating sometimes, so it was no surprise that Minho seemed shocked by the revelation. Despite all of his teasing, Minho was someone who really did care bout Hyunjin’s well-being after all, and Seungmin had a feeling that was why Minho was looking towards Seungmin for reassurance that this wasn’t something to be concerned about.

Still, Hyunjin hadn’t really mentioned much about his relationship to Seungmin since he and Changbin had started dating, which was a sign that things were probably going well. Besides, it was like Hyunjin had said. Seungmin wasn’t in any position to judge how Hyunjin chose to conduct his romantic relationship, not when Hyunjin seemed happy with it, and certainly not when Seungmin couldn’t even muster the courage to start one himself.

After a moment of silence, Minho said, “You know what, Hyunjin, I trust you know what you’re doing, so I’m not going to say anything. Can I at least have your permission to bug the heck out of Changbin about it?”

“Be my guest,” Hyunjin grinned.

Minho cracked a smile and affectionately ruffled Hyunjin’s hair before glancing back at his table.

“Well, I’m gonna head back to Chan then,” Minho said. Hongjoong and Seonghwa were bidding Chan goodbye, and Seonghwa also sent an apologetic wave over at Minho, who waved back. “I’ll see you guys—oh, hey, Jeongin.”

Seungmin’s head jerked upwards, and his face lit up at the sight of his favorite person in the world. His expression fell just as quickly though, upon seeing the cold look in Jeongin’s eyes as he smiled at Seungmin and Hyunjin, whose arms were still wrapped around Seungmin.

“You heading back to the dorms?” Minho asked.

“Yeah, just waiting for Yedamie,” Jeongin answered, gesturing behind him, where Yedam was still packing up his bags. His eyes lingered on Hyunjin and Seungmin before Jeongin commented, “You guys look like you’re having fun.”

Hyunjin’s grip around Seungmin tightened, much to Seungmin’s confusion, which only increased when Hyunjin said teasingly, “Jealous? I can give you a hug too.”

“Nah, I’ll pass,” Jeongin said, making a dramatic face of disgust that sent Hyunjin and Minho into a fit of laughter.

Seungmin didn’t have the heart to join them. He cleared his throat loudly and asked, “Want me to walk you back to your dorm?”

Jeongin’s smile didn’t reach his eyes.

“No, it’s fine. Yedamie and I live in the same dorm anyways, and you’re already with Hyunjin,” Jeongin deflected.

Seungmin tried his best not to let the disappointment show on his face.

Yedam eventually hurried over, bowing slightly with a bright smile as he greeted the three of them before the two freshman headed off towards the dessert bar to grab a final snack.

Yedam was a good person and a hard-working hockey player, and he was clearly becoming a close friend to Jeongin. There was nothing to dislike about the kid, and Seungmin was well aware of that.

Still didn’t stop Seungmin from sulking as he stared after them.

The moment Jeongin and Yedam were out of earshot, Minho let out a low whistle. He glanced over at Seungmin while shaking his head. “Poor Jeongin.”

“What?” Seungmin snapped, his brow furrowing.

Hyunjin finally untangled himself from Seungmin and placed a heavy hand on Seungmin’s shoulder. “Seungmin, you can’t be serious. Did you see the way Jeongin was looking at you?”

“If you meant the glare he was giving me, then yeah, I saw it,” Seungmin grumbled, poking at his food with his chopsticks. “Probably hates me for disturbing his time with his precious Yedamie.”

Hyunjin rolled his eyes while Minho raised his eyebrows at Seungmin, an amused grin on his face. “Ooh, jealous of Yedam? Jeongin’s your crush that Hyunjin mentioned earlier then?”

Seungmin stabbed his chopsticks straight through one of the sausages on his plate. “So what if he is? It’s obvious he’s never going to return my feelings.”

The pause in the conversation made Seungmin glance up. Minho had his eyebrows raised as he exchanged a glance with Hyunjin. Finally, Minho snorted, “Wow, you’re definitely not someone with any right to comment on my love life.”

His words didn’t escape Seungmin or Hyunjin, who teased with a grin, “Ooh, your love life?”

Minho lunged for Hyunjin, yanking him right out of his seat and into Minho’s lap. Squeezing one arm tightly around Hyunjin’s chest, Minho slapped his other hand over Hyunjin’s mouth to silence his dramatic squeals.

“Anyways!” Minho loudly declared, poking his head out from behind Hyunjin’s body to glare at Seungmin. “Seungmin, you’re a damn smart hockey player, but wow you’re an idiot when it comes to romance.”

“What do you mean?”

Hyunjin wrenched Minho’s hand off his mouth and said, “Seungmin, I’ve been trying to tell you this since the party, but Jeongin literally glares daggers at me whenever I cling onto you like I just did, and then he just looks more hurt when you don’t react.”

“But he always rejects me whenever I try to be affectionate with him.”

“I think that’s more to do with Jeongin not being big on physical affection,” Hyunjin pointed out.

“It’s not like he reacts to my flirting either though,” Seungmin stubbornly retorted.

Minho narrowed his eyes at Seungmin. “Since when have you tried flirting with Jeongin?”

“Literally just now,” Seungmin huffed. He scowled as Hyunjin let out a snort of laughter.

“Seungmin, that’s not flirting,” Minho said, slapping Hyunjin on the side to get him to be quiet again. “That was just you being a good friend.”

“Yeah, flirting’s when you make kissy faces at your crush while doing laps at practice,” Hyunjin chimed in before immediately slapping a hand over his mouth.

“Hyunjin, you have a death wish, don’t you?” Minho snarled, squeezing Hyunjin even tighter as he used his free hand to tickle Hyunjin in the side.

Seungmin slapped his hands over his ears as Hyunjin’s peals of laughter drew lots of attention from the people around them. Luckily, Chan saved the day, shouting all the way from across the dining hall, “Minho! Stop bullying Hyunjin!”

“Okay!” Minho shouted back, and he stopped immediately, though he still kept Hyunjin firmly in his grip, the younger wheezing for breath as he collapsed onto the table. Minho turned back to Seungmin with a completely serious look, as if he hadn’t just been about to tickle Hyunjin to death.

“Back on topic. Seungmin, your flirting may suck, but I’ve known about your crush for all of ten minutes, and even I can see that Jeongin has a crush on you too.”

“Then why hasn’t he told me about it?” Seungmin countered.

“The same reason why you haven’t told him. I know you keep saying you want to wait until you’re sure he likes you back, Seungmin, but at this rate, if you don’t make the first move, your hopes of a relationship will probably be over before you even have the chance to try,” Hyunjin said, finally wriggling his way out of Minho’s grip to sit back in his chair. “Besides, this is partly my fault, but you know how I’ve been super clingy with you lately? I was trying to see if Jeongin would get jealous, but I think I might’ve given him the wrong impression that you and I are actually a thing.”

“Misunderstandings. Always the worst for relationships.” Minho clicked his tongue, shaking his head. Seungmin caught Minho staring at Chan as he said it, but Seungmin smartly kept his mouth shut. Minho waved a hand lazily in the air and continued, “If I were you, I’d run after Jeongin and confess to him right now. Let him know how you feel before it creates any more tension between the two of you.”

Seungmin stared back at Minho and Hyunjin with a dumbfounded look, his mind so jammed with thoughts that he wasn’t thinking at all. Minho raised an eyebrow and jerked his head towards the dining hall exit, which Jeongin and Yedam could still be seen walking towards in the distance.

“Well, Seungmin, what are you waiting for?” Minho said, a twinkle in his eyes.

Seungmin sucked in a deep breath. Hyunjin gave him an encouraging nod, and Seungmin finally slammed his hands into the table and leapt to his feet.

“Hey, Jeongin, wait!” Seungmin shouted, heart pounding as he ran after Jeongin. “There's something I need to tell you!”


	4. Side Story

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> my brain came up with this late at night, and it’s not really relevant, but i thought it was kinda funny, so here it is lol

_Twenty some years later_

“And that, kids, is how I started dating your father,” Seungmin said sagely. His two children were sitting on the couch across from him, eyes wide as they listened with rapt attention.

Jeongin passed behind Seungmin with a basket full of fresh laundry. He took the chance to cuff Seungmin lightly on the back of the head and scoff, “Liar. That is so not how that happened.”

“Ooh, what really happened then?” one of their kids exclaimed, ignoring the way Seungmin whined loudly in pain.

“Your dad was in such a rush, he bumped into your Uncle Felix and got soup spilled all over his front. To make things worse, he tripped over someone’s backpack next and nearly cracked his skull open on the edge of a table. At that point, I ran up to your dad to make sure he was okay, and that was when I let it slip and said, ‘Seungmin, I love you, but you’re seriously such a mess sometimes.’”

Jeongin nodded in satisfaction as their kids howled with laughter. Jeongin took the chance to mess with Seungmin’s hair, laughing, “And that, kids, is the real story of how I started dating your dad.”

“You could’ve saved some of my dignity, Jeongin,” Seungmin groaned, sinking back into the couch to look up at Jeongin.

“You know you love me anyways,” Jeongin teased, leaning down to peck Seungmin on the lips. It drew a chorus of disgust from their children, prompting Seungmin to leap off the couch and launch himself at his kids to wrap them tightly in a big hug.

“Dad, Dad! Go back to the story about Minho and Channie!” their kids finally demanded after escaping Seungmin’s grasp and sidling up to Jeongin, who had taken sat down where Seungmin had once been sitting.

“What do you want to know?”

“How did they start dating? Channie always refuses to tell us, and Minho always says he’ll feed us to his cats if we keep asking!”

“Oh, he said that, did he?” Seungmin said, his eyes glinting darkly. “You tell Minho the next time he says that, I’ll feed _him_ to his cats.”

It made their kids squeal with laughter again, and as Jeongin enveloped them into his embrace, Seungmin’s heart felt fuller than ever watching the people he loved most in his life look so happy.

It was totally worth the embarrassment he suffered trying to confess to Jeongin all those years ago.

“Daaaad! Tell us the story!” their kids started whining again.

“Well, if you want to know that bad, you better sit tight, children,” Jeongin said, exchanging a knowing look with Seungmin, amused grins spreading across their faces. “Because they skated in circles around each other for a long, long time.”


	5. 3RACHA are late. Again.

If someone asked, Changbin would probably tell them that he’d just spent the past few hours locked in a closet with Chan and Jisung.

It was a misleading statement, but one that usually drew exasperated laughs from his friends once he clarified, and if there was one thing Changbin enjoyed in life, it was seeing his friends smile.

A more accurate statement would be that Changbin, Chan, and Jisung had locked themselves in a closet-sized music studio, which happened multiple times a week and wasn’t actually anything to surprised about. Thursdays in particular were the days when all three of them were free by noon, and after a quick lunch, it was their routine to head to their reserved studio downtown, which they could afford thanks to Changbin’s generous parents. Once there, they’d completely immerse themselves into their music and work until the latest possible moment before they had to leave for hockey practice. Chan being captain had helped a lot with their issue of being late for practice on days like this, but it certainly hadn’t solved it.

“I’m sorry, Minho, we lost track of time!” a stressed Chan whisper yelled into the phone squeezed between his ear and his shoulder, all the while holding his laptop precariously in one hand and trying to pull his car keys out of his pocket with the other.

It was an amusing scene that certainly distracted Changbin from some of the guilt of knowing they were about to miss most of practice.

The three of them had the bad habit of silencing their phones while they worked. Three missed calls and twenty-five text messages later, Minho had called the music studio to send someone to tell Chan that they were late for practice, which led them to where they were now, rushing through the parking lot as Chan apologized over and over again to a very irritated Minho.

“Look, I’ll see you when we get there, okay? We’ll be there in like fifteen minutes, so can you tell Coach Wang I’m sorry— What?” Chan froze in his steps for a brief moment before shaking his head and picking up his pace. “No, we’re late already, I can’t just— Min, you know that’s not good for you!”

The three of them finally arrived next to Chan’s car. Chan hurriedly unlocked the door, gesturing for Changbin and Jisung to get in. Changbin and Jisung immediately began to battle for the front seat, before a glare from Chan had Jisung obediently getting into the back as Chan’s attention was distracted by his call again.

“Huh? What do you mean you don’t care? Min, you can’t just— You know what, I’ll apologize to Coach Wang myself. Look after the kids on the ice while I’m not there, okay? Yeah, yeah, okay, I’ll see you soon, Min.”

Chan finally hung up with a long sigh. He took a moment to lean over the top of his car before climbing into the driver’s seat and starting the engine. Changbin and Jisung let Chan have his moment of silence as he turned onto the main road, before Jisung snickered loudly, “So we’re all your kids now, huh?”

Chan rolled his eyes, but he was smiling fondly as he said, “Yes, fine, everyone on the team might as well be my kids from how much trouble you all cause me.”

“Hey, today wasn’t our fault! If you’re going to blame someone, blame the sick beat you came up with today, Chan,” Jisung protested as he leaned against the hockey bag he was currently sharing the back seat with. “Man, I wish we could just skip practice.”

“You’ve got guts saying that in front of your captain, I’ll give you that,” Chan snorted as he pressed harder on the gas pedal, zooming through the intersection right before the light turned red.

“Still, if we’re your kids, that makes Minho our other dad though, right? He’s the only other senior and our assistant captain after all,” Changbin teased, snickering at the way Chan’s ears predictably went red.

Chan braked a little too hard at the next light as he shot Changbin a disapproving look. “I can see where you’re trying to go with this, and honestly, no, Minho’s definitely not your other dad.”

Changbin raised an eyebrow at that, but Jisung chimed in from the back, “Actually, Chan’s probably got a point. Minho has more of those funky, distant uncle vibes. Did you know he was the one who convinced Seungmin to confess to Jeongin last month? That’s definitely not the kind of thing a dad person could do for someone as disciplined as Seungmin.”

Chan let out a snort of laughter at the memory, while Changbin just shook his head, sighing with a disappointed smile. “The soup incident, right? Man, I’m still sad that I missed seeing it happen. Hyunjin wouldn’t stop laughing about it for days.”

“Well, you wouldn’t have if you hadn’t gone to your fancy dinner with Wooyoung,” Jisung retorted.

“I got coupons from my parents, and they were about to expire!” Changbin argued back. “I wasn’t about to let them go to waste, and Wooyoung was the only one left in the locker room by the time I was ready to leave.”

“You could’ve taken Hyunjin instead,” Jisung shrugged. Changbin stiffened immediately, but Jisung didn’t seem to notice as he continued to muse, “Actually, it’s probably good Hyunjin didn’t go. If he hadn’t been there, Minho wouldn’t have known about Seungmin’s crush, and then Seungmin probably wouldn’t have tried to confess to Jeongin, and then the two of them wouldn’t be our team’s cutest couple right now.”

“Right, the cutest couple,” Changbin echoed.

The conversation died there as Chan merged onto the highway, his face set into a frown as he concentrated on the road, while Jisung rolled down his window, sticking his head partially out to feel the breeze.

Changbin slumped back in his seats, his thoughts now filling the silence.

It wasn’t that Seungmin and Jeongin weren’t cute. They were the embodiment of a cute couple, especially because they were some of the youngest members on the team, and while Jeongin still loved to playfully reject Seungmin’s overt displays of affection, they had also just reached the hand-holding stage of their relationship.

It was strangely endearing, watching Seungmin and Jeongin figure out the dynamics of their relationship after years of mutual pining, but at the same time, it was an almost painful reminder of what Changbin didn’t have with Hyunjin.

Changbin had always found Hyunjin attractive, ever since Minho had dragged Hyunjin to one of their practices halfway through the season last year. One of the defensemen had just quit the team to focus on his senior thesis, and Minho had somehow convinced Coach Wang to let Hyunjin fill in that spot, on the sole basis that Hyunjin’s skating skills would make up for his complete lack of anything else.

Minho, as usual, had been right.

Anyone who’d doubted that Hyunjin was too pretty and delicate to be a hockey player had been quickly shut up by the sheer speed in which Hyunjin could outmaneuver the other players on the ice, and Hyunjin had worked harder than anyone to learn the other aspects of the game, even if he still shied away from physicality and screamed dramatically whenever he got checked.

It was something that Changbin quickly learned to respect about Hyunjin, that passion and drive to succeed once he put his mind to it.

Despite being teammates, however, Changbin hadn’t really interacted with Hyunjin much during the school year. It had taken a while for Hyunjin to open up to the team after all, and there had been that whole fiasco between Jisung and Hyunjin that no one liked to bring up, so Hyunjin had remained nothing more than an attractive acquaintance who Changbin knew decently enough to at least wave at whenever they saw each other around campus.

This past summer had changed that.

They’d run into each other midway through the summer by accident, having coincidentally signed up to participate in the same local talent showcase, Changbin for rapping, and Hyunjin for dancing. Their performances had finished early to lackluster crowds, and on a whim, Changbin had invited Hyunjin out for dinner, hoping it would lift their spirits and also allow him to get to know Hyunjin better.

It could’ve ended like that, but hanging out with Hyunjin had reminded Changbin of just how attractive he found Hyunjin’s looks and personality, and ultimately, Changbin had enjoyed Hyunjin’s company so much that he’d suggested meeting up again.

Four meet-ups later, Hyunjin had shyly asked if he would be right in assuming it was a date, and Changbin had found himself saying yes.

That was how it started.

Despite it all, when they’d sat down together to talk about their relationship, Hyunjin had been the one to suggest keeping it low-key. Changbin didn’t know why, but he hadn’t been opposed to it either. The physical attraction between them was certainly there, but they were still getting to know each other, having hung out a total of five times before deciding to slap the word “dating” on their relationship. Hyunjin had never dated before, and Changbin’s past relationships had never lasted more than a month, so they’d agreed to take it easy, test out the waters, maybe try to find the dynamic of what increasingly felt like casual friends who occasionally went on dates and made out.

Except now, several months later, this was officially the longest Changbin had ever dated anyone, and the growing want inside Changbin for something more out of his relationship with Hyunjin was starting to scare him.

“Actually, serious question, Changbin.”

Chan suddenly spoke up as he drove the car slowly into the next exit, breaking Changbin out of his thoughts. “Why didn’t you take Hyunjin on that fancy dinner?”

Changbin curled in on himself even further. He muttered, “I tried, but he was already leaving to go eat with Seungmin before I could ask. What was I supposed to do? Tell him to ditch his best friend to go eat with me?”

“Still, you could’ve asked him out beforehand, right?”

“I don’t know,” Changbin grumbled, sulking as he stared out the car window. “It’s just… all of our dates have been kinda spontaneous so far, so I felt like he’d be weirded out if I went out of my way to plan a nice date with him, you know?”

He was glad Chan and Jisung didn’t say anything, though he could feel them exchanging glances with each other behind his back. Chan eventually just reached over and patted Changbin on the head.

“Keep your chin up, Changbin,” Chan said. “I know you’re worried about doing the right thing, but it’s okay to follow your feelings sometimes. Even if you guys are taking things easy, I’m sure Hyunjin will appreciate it if you guys plan to do something nice together.”

“I guess I’ll think about it,” Changbin said, though he couldn’t help but smile. “Still, thanks, Chan. You always give the best advice.”

Chan smiled back, but the sweet moment was quickly broken as Jisung chirped up from the backseat, “If you’re not going to invite Hyunjin next time though, take me! I wanna eat rich people food.”

“In your dreams, Han,” Changbin retorted, sticking his tongue out at Jisung. “I’m not taking you out to a nice dinner date before my own boyfriend.”

Before Jisung could snark back, Chan chimed in with a grin, “Jisung, you know you wouldn’t go anyways. You’d have to miss your own dinner dates with Felix.”

“They are _not_ dinner dates, and I think Felix would understand if I ditched him to go eat fancy people food,” Jisung huffed.

“Really? Because I think he’d boycott being my defense partner if I ever tried that,” Chan replied thoughtfully.

“Well, you just don’t have the special bond with Felix that I do,” Jisung scoffed haughtily.

Chan and Changbin exchanged knowing looks before Chan glanced in the rearview mirror to waggle his eyebrows at Jisung. “A special bond, huh?”

“Oh, making jabs at my non-existent love life now, are you?” Jisung puffed his chest up indignantly, his eyebrows rising up as he made faces back at Chan. “What about you and Minho, huh? How’s _your_ special bond going?”

“Don’t tell me you’re still going on about that,” Chan snorted, rolling his eyes. “I don’t know how many times you want to hear it, but we’re still just friends.”

“Right, just friends,” Jisung repeated, his voice oozing with sarcasm. “That’s why you were calling him ‘Min’ so endearingly over the phone earlier too, right? Since when did you have pet names for each other?”

“It’s not a pet name, and I—I don’t know, it just slipped out one day, and I got used to saying it,” Chan grumbled, glaring hard at the traffic light that refused to turn green. “It’s not anything special.”

“But—”

“You want to talk about pet names? How about the ones you have for Felix then?” Chan cut in sharply, a teasing smile on his lips. “There’s Lix, Lixie, Yongbokkie, Sunflower—wait, not sunflower, sun…?”

“Sunshine,” Changbin chimed in with a smug grin, watching as Jisung’s cheeks started to puff out in an attempt to hide his growing blush.

“Okay, fine, you win,” Jisung huffed, deflating as he draped himself dramatically over his hockey bag. “Remind me not to bug you two about your love lives again.”

Chan grinned in victory and stepped on the gas, speeding up now that they had reached the final stretch of road leading up to the rink. Jisung’s comment about Chan calling Minho ‘Min’ however, which Changbin had to agree was incredibly suspicious, had reminded Changbin of something else he’d been curious to know.

“By the way, what were you arguing with Minho about earlier?” Changbin asked, recalling the somewhat heated conversation Chan had been having with Minho on the phone earlier. “It didn’t sound like it was related to practice.”

Chan frowned as he tried to remember, but the moment he did, an exasperated groan escaped from his lips. “Oh, that. He was yelling at us for being late, but when I tried to ask him to apologize to Coach Wang for us, he was all like, ‘Only if you get me a double shot iced americano.’ Shots are those things with lots of caffeine, right?”

Changbin nodded, biting back a laugh as he turned his head around to exchange amused looks at Jisung. It was always funny how clueless Chan was about anything related to coffee, though Chan’s avoidance of caffeine in general was impressive considering Chan was the textbook definition of a sleep-deprived college student.

Chan didn’t notice Changbin and Jisung’s amusement, already deeply lost in his rant.

“Coffee’s already got caffeine in it, so what was he thinking, trying to drink something like that, right before practice too? We’re already late, it’s not like I’m going to make us even more late by making a detour for a drink that’s going to make Minho stay up all night! Of course, then, he tried saying all that caffeine wouldn’t affect him, even though literally the last time he had coffee at night, he ended up staying in my room till like four in the morning playing games while I worked because he didn’t want to disturb Dori while she was sleeping in his room.”

Chan let out a long sigh, running a hand through his hair as he glanced at Changbin, as if seeking some sort of validation.

“Seriously, I just really don’t get Minho sometimes.”

Changbin patted Chan comfortingly on the shoulder.“If it makes you feel better, I think you’re still pretty high on the list of people who are closest to understanding what goes on in Minho’s head.”

“Second to me!” Jisung chimed in cheerfully. “You’re definitely first in Minho’s heart though!”

“Jisung!”

Chan whirled his head around to glare at Jisung, but in doing so, he accidentally turned the steering wheel, causing the car to jerk sharply to the right into the other side of the empty road. Changbin immediately reached over and helped yank the steering wheel back into position as Chan turned his attention back on driving, and the three of them sat in complete silence, hearts pounding from the scare.

In the end though, it didn’t take long for them to calm down. As the rink came into view, Changbin was the first to break the silence.

“You know, Chan, for all your complaining, you’re still going to buy Minho his iced americano after practice, aren’t you?”

Chan didn’t answer until the car came to a full stop in a parking spot. He shut off the engine, grabbed his keys, and then finally pressed his forehead into the steering wheel, groaning, “I totally am, aren’t I? Ugh, it’s so easy to tell him no on the phone, but the moment I see his pretty smile, all my common sense just flies out the window. I’d probably buy him a lifetime’s worth of coffee if he asked.”

Jisung had gotten out of the car at that point, pulling his hockey bag and stick out of the back seat with him. Shifting his bag onto his shoulder, Jisung leaned back into the car with a cheeky grin.

“It’s okay, Chan,” Jisung snickered. “That’s what having a crush will do to you.”

He bolted for the rink immediately, cackling like a madman all the way. Chan stared speechlessly after him, his mouth opening and closing like a gaping fish as Changbin slapped a hand over his mouth, struggling not to burst into laughter.

“I swear, the next time I see Jisung with Felix, I’m going to tease him. Relentlessly,” Chan grumbled as he stepped out of the car.

“Sure you are,” Changbin scoffed, helping Chan unload the rest of their bags from the trunk.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Come on, Chan. Minho might not be the dad on our team, but Jisung’s like his special baby. We all know Minho would never let you embarrass Jisung in front of Felix.”

Chan swung his hockey bag onto his shoulder with a long sigh.

“I hate that you’re right. Why am I like this?”

“It’s like Jisung said,” Changbin replied, taking a few precautionary steps away from Chan, a teasing grin on his face. “It’s the crush.”

And Changbin took off, running and screaming in delight as Chan chased him all the way to the rink.


	6. Three Dates ft. Minchan

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the next chapter was supposed to be kinda angsty, but I kinda felt like I needed to write something light-hearted and fun, so I wrote this instead :D
> 
> also thank you so much for all the kudos and comments! I hope this fic will continue to be fun to read!

The ice cream parlor was pretty empty when Jeongin and Seungmin entered.

It was to be expected. They were a couple months into the school year, and the weather was getting cooler by the day as the first winds of winter descended upon the campus. Most people seemed to prefer to soak in the warmth of the nearby cafes, nestled up with a hot drink, but Jeongin had been craving ice cream, and so to the ice cream parlor they went.

Jeongin and Seungmin picked a table near the large windows, a perfect spot to people watch and soak in the late afternoon sunshine. After a sudden game of rock paper scissors to decide who would pay, Seungmin grumbled as he walked up to the counter, making faces back at his boyfriend, while Jeongin gleefully shook his victorious fist of rock back at Seungmin.

Really, Seungmin was too soft for that boy.

“Two large cups of mint chip please,” Seungmin ordered.

“Sure thing,” the girl behind the counter grinned.

Seungmin recognized her as Yeji, Hyunjin’s distant cousin and the girlfriend of Ryujin, the freshman girl who was in charge of the scoreboard during the hockey team’s home game. The job came with the rights to choose the music during any stoppage of play, and Ryujin had quickly earned the team’s respect from her incredible sense of humor when it came to playing music to fit the mood of the game.

The memory of their game from this past weekend was still fresh in Seungmin’s mind, when not even Minho had been able to save them from being slaughtered by the top school in the league. Under normal circumstances, the 0-9 loss probably would’ve been embarrassing, but by the third goal, Ryujin had clearly given up on their team.

Each ensuing goal had been followed by “Hello darkness my old friend” crescendoing hauntingly through the rink, and by the time he’d given up seven goals, even Minho could be seen biting back a laugh.

It was a game Seungmin wasn’t going to forget for a while, and it’d made him feel incredibly grateful that Yeji had gotten Ryujin to apply for the position.

He was also just grateful that he knew Yeji, because it meant he had no shame in leaning in and asking quietly, “Do you think you could add a little more to one of the servings? Jeongin really likes mint chocolate chip.”

Yeji raised an eyebrow, though the smirk on her face grew.

“Hyunjin mentioned you were whipped for Jeongin, but I didn’t think you were this soft,” Yeji snickered, even as she scooped an entire fourth serving of ice cream into Jeongin’s cup.

“Uh, not that I’m not grateful, but that’s a lot more than a little,” Seungmin pointed out.

Yeji shrugged as she went and scooped a fifth serving. “Maybe, but my boss won’t mind. No one else seems to like mint chip other than you guys and Minho. He was here with Chan earlier by the way.”

“Really?”

Seungmin did remember hearing that Chan and Minho were going out on one of their “friendly hangouts” today since it was a rare weekend when they didn’t have any games, and Seungmin would be lying if he said he wasn’t at least a little curious as to what the two seniors normally did when they hung out.

“Yeah, they sat around for a while to eat and chat,” Yeji replied. “Ryujin mentioned Chan was a big eater, but wow, I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone eat so much vanilla ice cream before.”

“That’s Chan for you,” Seungmin laughs. “Always the happiest when he’s got something to eat.”

“You’d think, but have you seen the smile he makes when he stares at Minho?” Yeji said in a hushed whisper, a smiling spreading across her face. “Minho was feeding him his mint chip ice cream, and Chan was just was looking at Minho with the silliest smile on his face.”

Yeji let out a soft sigh as she handed over the two cups of ice cream to Seungmin. “I love Ryujin, but those two? That’s relationship goals right there.”

“They’re not even dating though,” Seungmin snorted as he fished out his wallet and paid for the ice cream, leaving Yeji a hefty tip.

Yeji’s eyes immediately widened as she stared at Seungmin in disbelief. “What? You’re kidding me, they’re not? But they—they look so in love!”

“I know, right?”

Jeongin suddenly came out of nowhere, flopping against Seungmin’s back and nearly knocking the cups of ice cream out of Seungmin’s hand. He tucked his neck onto Seungmin’s shoulder and continued, “I thought they were dating too, but apparently no one on the team believed it until I pointed it out.”

“Jeongin!” Seungmin exclaimed. “I could’ve dropped the ice cream!”

“Don’t care. You’d just buy me a new one,” Jeongin lazily said as he opened his mouth like a baby bird waiting to be fed.

“I’m not feeding you,” Seungmin said. “I don’t have the hands. Why didn’t you just wait at the table?”

“Got bored of waiting, and you guys seemed to be having fun chatting,” Jeongin grumbled, pouting as he stared glumly at the ice cream without bothering to reach for it.

Seungmin was about to make a snarky comment, when Jeongin quietly added on, “Kinda missed you too.”

Seungmin stared at Jeongin in shock. “You… you missed me?”

“What, I can’t miss my own boyfriend?”

“Well, no, you can, but you’ve never said something like that before,” Seungmin admitted, a fond look appearing on his face. “I was only away for a few minutes.”

“Still missed you, I guess,” Jeongin muttered, burying his face into Seungmin’s shoulder. The tips of his ears had gone tomato red.

In a rare moment of overwhelming affection, Seungmin set down his ice cream and petted Jeongin gently on the head. He softly laughed, “Why are you so cute?”

“Don’t call me cute,” Jeongin pouted, lifting his head again to rest his chin on Seungmin’s shoulder.

“You are cute,” Seungmin teased, and he picked out a spoonful of ice cream and fed it to Jeongin as he was opening his mouth in protest.

Jeongin was still pouting as he savored the mint chip ice cream, but even he couldn’t keep the smile off his face for much longer. He immediately opened his mouth for more, but Seungmin just shoved the ice cream into Jeongin’s hands. “Nuh uh, no more babying. Now thank Yeji for giving you so much extra ice cream.”

Jeongin stuck his tongue out at Seungmin, but when he turned towards Yeji, there was only the most pleasant of smiles on his face. He grinned, “Thanks, Yeji. You should come to our game next week by the way. Ryujin always plays the best music when you’re there.”

“She only plays love songs though?” Yeji laughed, recalling how the last time she went to a game, Ryujin had spent every break in the game serenading her with different love songs.

“Exactly,” Jeongin laughed, cheerfully chomping down on his ice cream.

When Yeji raised an eyebrow at him, Seungmin picked up his own ice cream from the counter and said, “I actually agree.”

“Really?”

Seungmin shrugged with a smirk. “Who knows? If she plays enough love songs, maybe Chan and Minho will finally get their shit together and become the adorable couple we all know they’d be.”

Jeongin bit back a snicker as they bid goodbye to Yeji, heading back to their table and soon getting lost in their own world.

Yeji had to smile, shaking her head as she laughed quietly to herself.

“I doubt anyone will be taking the title of cutest couple from you two anytime soon.”

* * *

“Changbin! Changbin, look, isn’t he so cute?”

Hyunjin was practically on the floor, cuddling a long-haired chihuahua in his arms. Changbin smiled fondly down at him while teasingly holding out a dog treat, causing the dog to wiggle out of Hyunjin’s arms and eagerly run up to Changbin.

“Hey, not fair!” Hyunjin protested, trying to pull the chihuahua back into his arms with little success.

“I think he just likes me better,” Changbin laughed, happily feeding the dog the treat, only for the dog to cheerfully waddle away once he’d gotten the treat.

“Hah, serves you right,” Hyunjin snickered, picking himself off the floor and sitting back down next to Changbin again.

Changbin rolled his eyes, though he smiled slyly as Hyunjin took a sip of his iced coffee. “It’s okay. You’re much cuter company anyways.”

Hyunjin immediately choked on his drink. Changbin panicked as he reached around Hyunjin to pat him on the back, though he couldn’t help but grin at the sight of Hyunjin’s reddened ears. Hyunjin coughed out a thanks before muttering something incomprehensible to himself as he busily drank up the rest of his drink.

They were currently at a dog cafe, filled with various dogs wandering about as their owners sat at tables enjoying a light snack. Felix had recommended the place to Changbin when he’d asked the younger boy for date ideas. It was close to campus and also a place that doubled as an adoption shelter, which made it the perfect place for the nearby college students to visit if they wanted to hang out with dogs.

Changbin knew very well how much Hyunjin liked dogs. Hyunjin had his pet dog Kkami as both his phone background and as stickers he used to decorate just about everything, so the dog cafe had made perfect sense for a nice, relaxed date.

The process of asking Hyunjin out on the date, however, had been anything but relaxed.

Changbin knew it was nothing he ought to be nervous about. They’d been dating for a few months now, and they’d gone on plenty of dates by now, each more enjoyable than the last, but Changbin still hadn’t found the courage to ask Hyunjin out in advance on a nice, comfortable date.

This weekend had been too good of an opportunity to pass up though, so, with the help of Minho, Changbin had tracked Hyunjin down at the dance studio on Monday to formally ask Hyunjin if he wanted to go to the dog cafe together. The gorgeous smile Hyunjin had given him had completely melted away his nerves, and now, days later, sitting together under the sunlight, surrounded by dogs and the sound of Hyunjin’s laugher, Changbin realized there’d been nothing to be scared about.

Changbin liked making Hyunjin happy, and it was simply as simple as that.

“Hey, look at that dog,” Hyunjin said, pointing across the room at a small King Charles dog that was dozing in the window sill. “She kinda looks like Chan’s dog, doesn’t she?”

“You’re right,” Changbin commented, craning his neck to get a better look. “Makes me wonder if Felix has brought Chan here with him before.”

“Well, I don’t know about Felix, but speaking of the devil,” Hyunjin said, a smirk appearing on his lips as he jerked his head towards the door just as Chan walked in with a bounce in his step, Minho following close behind him.

The entrance was a distance aways from where Changbin and Hyunjin were sitting, blocked slightly by a row of partitions. Chan and Minho clearly hadn’t noticed them as they took a seat on the opposite side of the room by the windows where the dog Hyunjin had just pointed out was.

“Huh, I would’ve expected them to go to a cat cafe instead,” Changbin commented, watching as Chan contentedly reached out to pet the dog behind the ears.

“Maybe it was Chan’s turn to pick out where to go on their date,” Hyunjin snickered.

Changbin bit back a chuckle. “You’re lucky Minho hasn’t noticed us yet.”

“I’m not scared of him,” Hyunjin huffed.

“Sure you aren’t,” Changbin teased back. “That’s why you’re not going over to greet them.”

Hyunjin stuck his tongue out at Changbin. “I don’t see you going to say hi to them either.”

Changbin didn’t know why, but being able to banter like this with Hyunjin made him terribly happy. Before he could stop himself, he reached over and smacked Hyunjin lightly on the shoulder with a cute manner, laughing in a baby voice, “That’s just cause I don’t want to leave my Hyunjinie.”

Hyunjin did a double take, his entire body jerking away from Changbin so suddenly that Changbin also jerked away from Hyunjin in surprise. Dread was filling Changbin quickly at the sight of the wide-eyed look on Hyunjin’s face, as Changbin hastily stammered, “Ah, sorry, that was weird, wasn’t it? I shouldn’t have—”

“Wait,” Hyunjin cut Changbin off, grabbing his hand. He was staring at Changbin with such intensity that Changbin felt his breath catch in his throat. “Do that again.”

Changbin’s eyes widened. “What?”

“Do it again,” Hyunjin repeated, his voice barely a hushed whisper. “Call me Hyunjinie again.”

Changbin hesitated. There was almost a look of excitement in Hyunjin’s eyes, which didn’t make sense but also filled Changbin will all sorts of confidence. Slowly, he tapped his fist to Hyunjin’s shoulder, and with a shaky voice, he giggled, “I didn’t want to leave you, Hyunjinie.”

Hyunjin’s mouth split into a wide grin. He dramatically shivered, like a chill had run up and down his body, wriggling his arms in the air in front of him before collapsing against Changbin.

“Ooh, I hated that so much,” Hyunjin giggled, draping his arms around Changbin.

“You did?” Changbin asked, frowning. He should’ve felt worried that Hyunjin really did hate it, but somehow, Hyunjin’s laughter was enough to brush away all his concerns.

“I did,” Hyunjin laughed, his breath tickling Changbin’s ear. “But in the good way. Like it was cringy but also it made me happy that you’re willing to be playful with me.”

Changbin leaned back into Hyunjin’s embrace, soaking in his boyfriend’s warmth as he dwelled on his thoughts. Finally, Changbin snickered, “I guess I’ll just have to act cute with you until you get used to it. Starting with calling you Hyunjinie.”

“Noooo,” Hyunjin whined, though there was no bite to his laughter. “If you do that, I’m going to start calling you Binnie!”

A small part of Changbin’s heart fluttered at the nickname, even as he felt his cheeks heat up from embarrassment. Would it be awkward if he told Hyunjin he didn’t really mind the nickname?

Luckily, he was saved from answering when Chan suddenly appeared by their table.

“Binnie! Hyunjin! Enjoying your date?” Chan grinned down at them.

“Hi Chan,” Hyunjin replied, still not letting go of his hold on Changbin. “I didn’t think we’d see you and Minho here.”

“I know right?” Chan laughed, oblivious as Hyunjin and Changbin shared a look. “I guess even Minho has days when he wants to hang out with dogs.”

Chan glanced back towards his table fondly. Hyunjin followed his gaze and had to smile. Minho was squatting on the floor, rubbing the bellies of two different dogs that had flopped down around him.

“He’s so good with animals,” Hyunjin commented.

“Well, he _is_ an animal science major,” Changbin replied, laughing as he watched another dog waddle up to Minho, eager for pets. “I still think he’s crazy for doing hockey and dance on top of everything he has to study for though.”

Hyunjin started to hum in agreement, but Chan scoffed, rolling his eyes as he gave Changbin a look. “You say that like you’re not in the exact same boat.”

“What’s that mean?” Hyunjin asked, letting go of Changbin so he could study him with a curious look.

“Ah, well,” Changbin awkwardly looked away, “I don’t really talk about it, but I’m actually pre-med.”

Hyunjin’s eyes widened. “Pre-med? I thought you wanted to do music.”

“I do,” Changbin shrugged, “but I thought since they’re already willing to support my dream to become a musician, it wouldn’t hurt to keep my options open. I guess it’s my way of reassuring my parents they can support my dream without worrying about the what ifs.”

“And you’re just willingly doing all that?” Hyunjin said incredulously, a small smile creeping on his lips. “Wow, I’m learning lots of new things about you today. You’re even stubborn in weird ways”

“Changbin’s always been stubborn,” Chan laughed in agreement, giving Changbin a pat on the head. As Changbin struggled to find the words to protest, Chan continued, “Anyways, now I feel like I’m intruding, so I’ll leave you to go back to my date then.”

“See you,” Hyunjin cheerfully waved, before he processed Chan’s words.

“Wait, what?” Hyunjin and Changbin exclaimed, their eyes widening as Chan turned back to look at them with an innocuous look.

At the sight of their stunned expressions, Chan cheekily giggled, “I’m kidding. We’re not dating so of course it’s not a date. You guys are so fun to tease.”

Before either of them could respond, Chan was already hustling back to Minho’s side. For a while, Changbin and Hyunjin watched in silence as Chan flopped down onto the floor next to Minho. They weren’t really talking with each other, too busy consumed with petting the dogs around them, but occasionally Chan and Minho would exchange looks, a cheeky smile, a roll of the eyes, words spoken too softly for anyone else to hear.

Hyunjin finally broke the silence.

“Was he actually kidding?” Hyunjin asked, leaning into Changbin’s side.

Changbin cast Chan and Minho one last glance before returning his full attention to Hyunjin. Smiling lazily as he took out a dog treat to attract the attention of the longhaired chihuahua from earlier, Changbin sighed, “Honestly, I don’t know either.”

* * *

Jisung would like you to know that this was not a date, thank you very much.

It was not a date because Jisung and Felix were not dating, and it was also not a date because Jisung totally did not have a big fat crush on Felix, his best friend, his almost birthday twin, his beautiful sunshine.

Sure, he was holding Felix’s hand. Sure, he was close enough to smell Felix’s cologne, which reminded Jisung of sunshine and rainbows and a refreshing breath of air. And sure, Felix was now leaning so close to Jisung that their cheeks were this close to touching as they peered out from behind a bush to spy on Minho and Chan’s date.

But that didn’t mean Jisung and Felix were on a date.

Minho would probably say otherwise, but Minho was also on a date he refused to acknowledge was a date, so who could say which one of them was more of a hypocrite?

Jisung had to wonder if this was why he and Minho were such good friends. Their personalities had always just clicked together, but most of all, they were both crushing on extremely sweet and kind Australians while also simultaneously refusing to acknowledge that any such crush existed.

“Jisung, come on, they’re heading that way,” Felix whispered, tugging at Jisung’s hand and breaking Jisung out of his thoughts. They tumbled out from behind the bushes, hurrying down the sidewalk to keep up with Minho and Chan. Jisung did his best to focus the two captains and not think about how perfectly Felix’s tiny hand fit into his.

Jisung and Felix had originally planned to go to the arcade. Felix liked gaming, and Jisung like winning, so they had a friendly rivalry when it came to beating each other’s high scores every week. On the way there, however, they’d passed by the dog cafe Felix liked so much, just so Felix could fawn over the dogs from outside, which was where they’d bumped into Hyunjin and Changbin on their date. They were the ones who’d told them that Chan and Minho were inside together, and ultimately, the temptation to spy on them had won over, leaving Felix and Jisung to hide as they waited for Chan and Minho to leave so they could follow their best friends around in secret.

It was now starting to get late into the afternoon. Chan and Minho were walking side by side in front of them, Chan’s hands in his pockets as Minho studied something on his phone before looking around the street like he was confused.

“Are they lost?” Felix whispered.

Jisung watched as Minho’s eyes lit up at the sight of something across the street, prompting Minho to suddenly begin dragging Chan along across the intersection.

“He’s probably trying to find a place to eat,” Jisung guessed, recognizing the street they were on. There was a malatang restaurant nearby that he and Minho had checked out earlier this week, and Jisung wouldn’t be surprised if Minho was planning on taking Chan there too.

“Ah, shit, that reminds me, we didn’t get lunch,” Felix remarked, though he was still watching Chan and Minho carefully.

Jisung grinned at Felix, even if he knew Felix probably wouldn’t notice. He’d always liked the intensity on Felix’s face whenever he got super focused on something. It was a sharp contrast to the soft smiles that Felix always had, and it was something Jisung found himself thinking about a lot.

Not that it meant he had a crush on Felix of course. They were just friends.

Obviously.

“Come on, Felix,” Jisung finally said, tugging on Felix’s arms so they could cross the intersection once Chan and Minho had disappeared out of view. “The place next door to where they’re going sells really good chicken. We can eat there while we wait.”

Felix’s eyes lit up at the suggestion, and Jisung’s heart swelled up with a warmth that he couldn’t describe. Felix latched onto Jisung immediately, laughing, “How do you know all these food places?”

“Minho likes taking me out to find new places to eat,” Jisung shrugged as they hurried across the intersection. “It’s our weekly ritual at this point.”

“If I didn’t know better, I’d think you two were dating,” Felix chuckled, huddling closer to Jisung as a gust of wind picked up.

Jisung made a gagging noise. “Me and Minho? Please, he’s the one who clings to me. He’s not even my type.”

“Oh, and what is your type?” Felix teased.

Jisung paused, which made Felix cock his head to one side as he stared curiously at Jisung. In a rare moment of courage, Jisung said in a serious voice, “Cute, freckled Australians. That’s my type.”

Felix blinked blankly back at Jisung.

“You like Chan?”

“What, no!” Jisung exclaimed, making the most dramatically disgusted face he could muster. “Chan’s like a big bro to me, man. Besides, he doesn’t even have freckles!”

“He does,” Felix argued back. “They’re just not as visible as mine—oh, you meant me!”

Jisung rolled his eyes, trying to mask the rising nervousness in his chest. Felix was laughing now, still clinging tightly onto Jisung, so at least it was a sign that Felix wasn’t put off by Jisung’s statement. Still, Jisung couldn’t help but sigh when Felix cheerfully replied, “Aww, I know you’re kidding, but that’s so sweet of you to say that. You’re my type too, bro, when it comes to guys.”

“And what’s that?” Jisung asked, playing along. “Handsome multi-talented genius?”

“More like multi-talented dumbass,” Felix snickered, poking Jisung’s cheeks as they entered the chicken restaurant. “But not just any dumbass. _My_ adorable dumbass.”

“Hey! Is that supposed to be a compliment?” Jisung scrunched his nose up at Felix, hoping it would hide the blush rising to his cheeks. So consumed with trying to etch the memory of Felix’s bright smile into his mind, Jisung didn’t pay any attention to his surroundings, until a familiar voice rang out in front of them.

“Told you they were following us, Chan.”

Jisung and Felix startled as they looked up to see Minho standing in front of them, arms crossed in front of his chest as he raised an eyebrow at them. Chan was standing behind Minho with an amused expression, a twinkle in his eyes.

“Minho! Chan! What a surprise to see you here!” Jisung dramatically exclaimed, his eyebrows raised high as he looked towards Felix in a panic. He hadn’t paid attention to which restaurant Minho and Chan had entered, so convinced they’d be going to eat malatang.

“Drop the act, Jisung,” Minho scoffed. “We noticed you right when we left the dog cafe. Those bushes weren’t nearly big enough to hide the two of you.”

“Okay, fine, you caught us,” Felix relented, holding his hands up in the air with a pout. “We just wanted to see what our favorite seniors were up to.”

“You should’ve just said hi then,” Chan said, smiling brightly at Felix before reaching out to pull Felix into an affectionate hug. Chan glanced up at Jisung with an equally happy look. “You guys probably haven’t eaten right? Let’s order together then, my treat.”

“Whoa, seriously?” Jisung and Felix exclaimed in chorus. Felix clung onto Chan like a baby koala as he squealed, “Chan, you’re the best!”

Felix and Chan began heading towards the counter to place their order, but as Jisung moved to follow, Minho tugged at the back of Jisung’s shirt, his unamused look all Jisung needed to know that Minho had not bought Felix’s excuse.

“You’re on thin ice,” Minho muttered under his breath, wrapping one arm around Jisung’s shoulder in a half-menacing manner. Jisung pouted back at Minho, even as he cowered under the pressure of Minho’s arm.

“You should’ve just gone to the malatang place if you didn’t want to be disturbed on your date,” Jisung huffed.

“Not a date,” Minho retorted, “and it was more fun ambushing you and Felix here.”

“You’re ruining all the fun,” Jisung grumbled, turning his eyes towards Felix and Chan, who still had Felix entirely enveloped in a hug. Jisung knew Felix and Chan were like brothers at this point, given how close the two were, especially because they were the only students from Australia. There was no point being jealous of Felix and Chan’s relationship, but even then, Jisung’s hand felt terribly cold now that Felix’s was out of his reach.

“Ah, I see, we’re the ones who ruined your date,” Minho snickered quietly, squeezing Jisung’s shoulder tightly.

Jisung scrunched his nose up at Minho. “If you’re not on a date, then I’m not on one either.”

“Deal,” Minho laughed, ruffling Jisung’s hair before pushing Jisung along in front of him. “Come on, let’s get some food, and then we can think of a way to get Felix to cuddle you instead of Chan. Sounds good?”

Jisung immediately latched onto Minho. “Aw, this is why you’re my favorite, Minho.”

As Minho rolled his eyes at Jisung, neither of them noticed that Chan and Felix had been watching them as they waited for Minho and Jisung to approach.

And if Jisung had looked up just a little sooner, maybe, just maybe, Jisung would’ve noticed the look in Felix’s eyes that suggested that Jisung’s (not) feelings might’ve not been all that hopeless after all.


	7. Close Calls and New Beginnings

It was supposed to have been an exciting win.

They were currently playing a home game on a Friday night. It was the last game before everyone would leave for winter break, so with finals breathing down everyone’s neck and the weather growing colder each day, everyone on the team had been particularly eager to end the semester on a good note.

They were currently up three to zero and almost completely dominant throughout most of the game. Minho was clearly in the zone today, making brilliant saves one after another, and Chan had been involved in each of the three goals, setting up plays that had even given Jongho, a freshman forward who’d just started playing hockey this year, his first goal.

With their captains playing so well, the entire team had given their all, and with less than two minutes left in the period, there was no doubt in anyone’s mind that they were going to be celebrating a win later tonight at Chan’s place with plenty of alcohol and pizza to go around.

In the meantime though, they still had hockey to play, and Changbin was thoroughly exhausted as he slid onto the bench behind his line mates for a change.

Normally, he’d cheer for Jisung as they traded places, but Changbin didn’t want to sound obnoxious. Under normal circumstances, Changbin wouldn’t care, but the other team was bigger than they were and playing much more physically too. He could see that the other team was growing frustrated about their lack of scoring, and their captain in particular, a tall and physical center, had an aggressive look his eyes had left Changbin feeling wary.

Sure, Changbin wanted to win, but most of all, Changbin was just praying that his team could get their win without anyone getting hurt.

The other team dumped the puck into the zone, one of their forwards chasing after it, hot on Jisung’s heels. After a battle by the boards, Felix joined in, poking the puck out along the boards, where it was picked up by an opposing forward and passed back to a defenseman at the blue line, who immediately sent a powerful shot flying towards net.

The puck slammed into bottom of Minho’s mask. Changbin winced as the puck bounced away into the stick of an opposing forward, who took another shot on goal. It bounced harmlessly off Minho’s pads, but immediately Changbin could see something was wrong.

Minho had barely even reacted to the last shot, and as if to prove Changbin’s point, Minho’s helmet came tumbling off his head just as Jisung got the loose puck, already turning to head out the zone with Jeongin racing out ahead of him.

Everything happened too fast.

Jisung attempted to pass to Jeongin, just as the referee blew his whistle to stop play. Jeongin, whose reaction time had always surprised Changbin, immediately skidded to a stop.

The puck ricochetted off the boards, straight towards the other team’s captain, who took one look at Minho bending down to pick up his helmet and swung his stick forward at the puck for a slap shot.

The puck lifted into the air, straight for Minho’s head.

Changbin’s heart leapt to his throat, his eyes unable to look away. Suddenly, Chan dove in front of Minho. He knocked the puck out of the air with his palm, the part of his hand that was unprotected by his glove, and immediately, Chan collapsed onto his knees with a cry of pain, cradling his hand to his chest.

The puck skidded away across the ice.

Changbin heard it hit the boards with a dull thud before all hell broke loose on the ice.

“You fucking bastard! You did that on purpose!” Jisung snarled as he spun around, glaring at the other team’s captain, who immediately rounded on Jisung.

Felix was quicker. He’d already been moving towards them the moment Chan had gotten hurt, and with Jisung’s outburst, Felix broke into a charge, slamming his body straight into the other team’s captain and sending them both tumbling into the ice.

“Yeah, fucking get him, Felix!” Ryujin shouted through the speakers, the home crowd rising up in an uproar.

Felix continued throwing punches at the captain, who fought back. Jisung intercepted an opposing player trying to skate up to join the fight, while another forward knocked an unsuspecting Jeongin to the ice, which sent Seungmin into a blind rage as he shoved the offending player into the boards.

Changbin had half the mind to leap over the boards and join the fight himself, but he stopped when he felt someone tug at the back of his jersey.

Hyunjin’s hand was shaking as he clutched the fabric of Changbin’s jersey. Unlike the others, Hyunjin wasn’t watching the fights breaking out on the ice.

His eyes were on Minho, who was crouched down next to Chan, asking if he was okay.

Changbin realized it was probably the first time Hyunjin was witnessing something like this in person. They were just a club team after all. Tensions were rarely this high, and Changbin himself had never seen someone so flagrantly try to injure another player.

It was bad enough that someone had tried to shoot a puck at Minho when he hadn’t had his helmet.

It was worse that someone dared to do it so late after the whistle, when Minho had been completely vulnerable. If Chan hadn’t gotten in the way…

Changbin didn’t even want to think about what would’ve happened to Minho, but he had the feeling that Hyunjin had, and it was the reason why his boyfriend looked so close to tears.

So as the sounds of the referees’ whistles and fighting continued to echo through the rink, Changbin reached an arm around Hyunjin’s shoulders and hugged him close to his body, not caring who else might see.

* * *

“There you are.”

Hyunjin looked up. Changbin was making his way through the bleachers, carrying a warm drink in each hand as he approached. He held one of the drinks out to Hyunjin as he sat down next to him.

“Here, Felix bought us all hot chocolate. Said he felt bad for getting into a fight and then having to leave the game.”

“The fight wasn’t his fault though,” Hyunjin murmured, though he accepted the hot chocolate with a gracious smile. “The other guy totally deserved it after what he tried to do.”

“I know,” Changbin replies, blowing gently on his drink, “but you know Felix. He’s too nice. Probably feels bad for losing his temper, though I’m sure glad he punched the bastard. I hope they ban him from ever playing hockey again.”

Hyunjin hummed in agreement, lacing his fingers around the warm hot chocolate before raising the cup to take a small sip. The warmth soaked through his body, and as Changbin shifted closer to Hyunjin, just enough so that their shoulders were barely touching, Hyunjin finally let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding.

“I’m sorry I left the locker room so quickly,” Hyunjin said, staring out at the rink below them. “Is Chan okay?”

“He’ll be fine,” Changbin replied, taking a long sip of his drink before making a face at how sweet the hot chocolate was. “Luckily, nothing was broken, but he’s going to have a really bad bruise on his hand for a while. Coach already told Chan banned from coming to practice until it heals, but it’s not like we’ve got any games left, so I think Chan’s glad for the excuse to have time to work on his finals.”

“That’s good,” Hyunjin said simply, though his heart wasn’t in it. As the silence dragged on again, Hyunjin asked quietly, “And Minho? Is he okay?”

Changbin didn’t immediately answer. He took another tentative sip of his hot chocolate before setting it down with a long sigh.

“He did a good job keeping it together. Joking around, trying to make everyone happy that we’d won, so I think we all thought he was his normal self, but… when Chan came into the locker room to show us that his hand was fine, Minho just…”

Changbin hunched over slightly, gazing out at the ice. “He just went up to Chan and hugged him without saying anything. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Minho look that vulnerable before.”

Hyunjin didn’t respond. The two of them continued to sit in silence, staring at the ice and sipping on their drinks, until even the hot chocolate began to grow cold. As Hyunjin downed the rest of his hot chocolate, Changbin suddenly spoke up.

“What about you, Hyunjin?”

“What about me?” Hyunjin deflected, his voice quiet.

Changbin gently turned Hyunjin around in order to properly look Hyunjin in the eyes.

“You’ve asked about Chan and Minho, but it’s my turn to ask you, Hyunjin. Are you okay?”

Hyunjin’s expression remained blank as he stared back at Changbin. There was a sincerity behind Changbin’s stern expression, a gaze that scattered away some of the emptiness in Hyunjin’s mind.

Hyunjin let out a shaky breath.

“No, I don’t think so,” Hyunjin quietly admitted, curling his fingers around his empty cup.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

Hyunjin gulped. He must have hesitated a little too long because Changbin gently placed his hand over Hyunjin’s, saying, “You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to, of course, but I’m here for you, you know. If there’s anything I can do…”

Changbin trailed off, wetting his lips nervously as his eye flitted briefly away from Hyunjin’s gaze. It was a sign he was flustered, like he wasn’t sure if Hyunjin would accept his concern, and somehow, it left Hyunjin feeling warmer than he’d felt from drinking the hot chocolate.

Hyunjin softly squeezed Changbin’s hand back as he cracked a small smile. “Thanks, Changbin. I really appreciate you.”

Hyunjin couldn’t tell if the redness in Changbin’s cheeks was from the cold or the flustered expression spreading across his face. Hyunjin closed his eyes briefly to collect his thoughts before letting out a long sigh.

“After Minho almost got hurt, you know how I couldn’t get back on the ice to take the next shift?” Hyunjin murmured, squeezing Changbin’s hand a little tighter. “The truth is, I was scared. Not just for Minho, but for myself.”

“What do you mean?” Changbin asked.

“You know how I used to do ice dancing?” Hyunjin said.

Changbin nodded.

“Well, one day at practice, I messed up. I went into a spin too close to my partner, and her skate nicked me right here.”

Hyunjin pointed to a spot on his forehead, where Changbin realized he could see a barely noticeable scar half covered by Hyunjin’s hairline. Hyunjin continued, “Luckily, it wasn’t too deep of a cut, but after that, I couldn’t bring myself to do ice dancing anymore. Every time I tried to spin, I’d just seize up in fear that I’d get hurt again, and at some point, the thought that I might trip and someone’s skate might come a little too close to my head again terrified me to the point where I couldn’t even step on the ice again.”

Hyunjin let out a shaky sigh. “Anyways, that’s why I quit figure skating. I thought hockey would be fine, since we’ve got helmets and pads and all sorts of protection gear to keep us safe, so that’s why I was finally able to start skating again, but when I saw Minho lose his mask and almost get hurt, I… I couldn’t get back on the ice. All I could think about was what could have happened, what would have happened to Minho if Chan hadn’t jumped in to protect him, and I… I…”

A sob broke free from Hyunjin’s throat as he pressed his hands to his face, tears spilling out of his eyes. Changbin immediately hugged Hyunjin tightly to his chest, and the warm pressure of Changbin’s arms around his back only made Hyunjin sob harder.

“I was so scared for him,” Hyunjin cried, his tears finally free falling as his tough front crumbled to pieces. “I’m just so glad he didn’t get hurt.”

“I know,” Changbin whispered back, not letting go of the tight hold he had on Hyunjin. “Me too.”

Hyunjin didn’t know how long he sat there, sobbing into Changbin’s chest, but the more he cried, the lighter his heart felt. It was like all his fears were slowly falling away, melting from the unrelenting warmth of Changbin’s body. With each breath, it was getting easier to breathe, and as Hyunjin felt the cold air in the ice rink fill his lungs, Hyunjin was finally able to look up at Changbin with a clear mind, smiling back at the tender look in Changbin’s eyes.

“Thanks,“ Hyunjin murmured, still basking comfortably in the warmth of Changbin’s hug. “I probably look like a mess now, don’t I?”

Changbin grinned and lightly pecked Hyunjin on the lips. “You always look beautiful.”

That made Hyunjin giggle. Changbin had always been able to make Hyunjin’s heart flutter. At first, it had been the obvious things: the intense aura Changbin had whenever he was focused, how hot he looked after practice, glistening with sweat, his arms exposed from his sleeveless shirt. Nowadays though, Hyunjin was starting to notice the little things more. Moments like this, when Changbin was so casually affectionate, with eyes so full of tender emotion, looking at Hyunjin in a way that made him feel like he was the only person in the world. It was more than enough to make Hyunjin want to be more selfish, to want to keep this side of Changbin all to himself. And even though Hyunjin knew he couldn’t afford for his crush to be anything more, that he shouldn’t let himself expect too much, Hyunjin couldn’t help it.

He was falling deeper in love with Changbin with each passing days, and he didn’t know if he could hold it in much longer.

“You know, this probably isn’t the best time to say this, but I don’t think I can wait any longer,” Changbin suddenly said as they broke apart from the hug. Hyunjin frowned a little, Changbin’s words overlapping with his thoughts. He was still sniffling as he stared curiously at Changbin, when Changbin suddenly took Hyunjin’s hands in his.

“Hyunjin, I love you.”

Hyunjin’s eyes widened. His mouth slightly agape, Hyunjin heard himself say, “Huh?”

“I love you, Hyunjin,” Changbin repeated, staring earnestly back with a soft smile hanging from his lips. “Being able to comfort you like this, it only made me more sure about how I feel. I want you to always be happy, Hyunjin, but not just that. I want to be the reason you smile everyday, the person you can turn to whenever you’re feeling down. That’s why, this might sound weird since we have been dating for a while now, but I want to ask you out again, Hyunjin. I want to build a proper relationship with you, and if you’ll let me, I want to be a part of your life, for a long, long time in to the future.”

“You… you really mean it?” Hyunjin said quietly, his voice trembling.

“Of course,” Changbin replied. “I know this might’ve started out as just a fling for us, but the more I got to know you, the more I couldn’t imagine what it was like not having you in my life. I don’t want this time we’ve spent together to become just some college memory I’ll maybe reminisce on some day in the future. I want you to treasure this time with you now, so that one day in the future, we can look back at moments like these together, laughing at how clumsily we started our relationship.”

Hyunjin didn’t know what to say. His heart was pounding so loudly in his chest, he was sure Changbin must be able to hear it. His hands were shaking so bad that he had to squeeze Changbin’s hands tightly back just to calm himself down, but as Hyunjin struggled to find the right words, Changbin’s words cut through his thoughts again.

“Of course, I understand if you don’t feel the same,” Changbin hastily added, his eyes glancing down towards their intertwined hands, “but I just wanted to tell you—”

“Changbin,” Hyunjin cut in, letting go of Changbin’s hands to gently cup Changbin’s chin and force him to look up. Hyunjin knew he must’ve had the silliest grin on his face, but when Changbin visibly relaxed, Hyunjin realized he knew what to do.

Hyunjin surged forward, closing his eyes as he pressed his lips to Changbin’s. Immediately, he felt Changbin’s hands come up behind his head, his fingers running through Hyunjin’s hair. The overwhelmingly sweet taste of hot chocolate still lingered on Changbin’s lips, and when they broke apart, noses still touching and their hot breaths mingling together, Hyunjin laughed, “You know, I think hot chocolate might just become my new favorite drink.”

“So your answer…” Changbin said, a teasing tone in his hesitation.

“I love you too, Changbin. Of course I want to keep being your boyfriend,” Hyunjin giggled, leaning back in for another kiss.

The sound of footsteps approaching, however, quickly made Changbin and Hyunjin break apart. They both turned to look at the staircase just as Minho’s head poked out from behind it.

“Oh, finally,” Minho said, “I’ve been looking for you two.”

“Minho?” Hyunjin got up in a hurry. “Is everything okay?”

“Everything’s great,” Minho said, strolling over. There was a slight bounce in his step, like something good had happened, and Hyunjin was glad to see that Minho was back to his usual confident self. Minho continued, “Thought I’d just come find you two to tell you the plan before we all left. Party’s gonna be at ten. Coach is buying us all pizza, and Chan and I will provide the alcohol, so just show up for a good time.”

“Really?” Changbin exclaimed, his face lighting up at the mention of free food.

Hyunjin was slightly less excited. With a concerned look, he said, “Are you sure you want to host the party? Chan’s hurt, right? And I’m sure you…”

“I’m fine,” Minho insisted, reaching over to ruffle Hyunjin’s hair. “Yeah, it was scary at the moment, but I’m not gonna let some asshole ruin our right to celebrate winning our last game of the semester. Besides, now I get to baby Chan all I want. It’s a win win, honestly.”

The grin on Minho’s face made Hyunjin smile too. “I wish I could be as mentally tough as you, Minho.”

“You’re plenty tough already,” Minho laughed, his eyes shifting towards Changbin. “What matters most is having people around you who can support you, right?”

Hyunjin glanced towards Changbin shyly. He wondered if he was blushing as red as Changbin was as Changbin softly reached out and laced his fingers with Hyunjin’s again.

“You two make a strangely cute couple,” Minho commented, his eyes twinkling, but as he glanced down at their intertwined hands, his expression suddenly shifted into something a little more serious. “Actually, that reminds me. I wanted to ask you two about something.”

“What is it?” Changbin asked, a confused frown appearing on his face.

“Well, I was just curious, but…” Minho pursed his lips together, making a face as he mulled over his words. “You two, you’re still taking it easy with your relationship, right? What’s it like?”

Hyunjin exchanged glances with Changbin, a red flush quickly spreading across his cheeks. The reality of it all was finally starting to hit him.

Changbin was in love with him. They were in love with each other, and now they’re were going to be proper boyfriends. Just that little difference was more than enough make Hyunjin’s heart swell with happiness.

“Do you want to be the one to tell him?” Changbin asked, looking at Hyunjin with a supportive smile.

Hyunjin smiled back. Squeezing Changbin’s hand tightly, Hyunjin grinned up at Minho and admitted, “Actually, we just decided to make things official.”

Minho blinked.

“Oh.”

Minho pursed his lips, his eyes shifting upwards, deep in thought. It wasn’t the reaction Hyunjin had expected, but he didn’t have time to dwell it as Minho suddenly straightened up and said, “Well, I’m happy for you two. I think you really suit each other well.”

Hyunjin could tell Minho was being sincere. He could see it from Minho’s smile, hear it from how Minho spoke those words, but the look in his eyes said otherwise. The sparkling fire that was always alight in Minho’s eyes seemed dimmer than usual, like his mind was now preoccupied elsewhere. He turned his face away from Hyunjin and Changbin. “Anyways, Chan’s probably waiting for me, so I’ll leave you two lovebirds alone then. I better see you two at the party!”

Minho wagged a finger at them before walking away back down the stairs, his every step thudding heavily against the padded flooring.

Hyunjin and Changbin watched him go in silence. Eventually, Minho’s footsteps faded away into the distance, and Hyunjin and Changbin turned to each other, sharing matching looks of confusion.

“What was that about?”


	8. The After-party

Jeongin found the whole situation quite familiar.

He was currently sitting in Chan’s living room, this time however with more people. Including the rest of the team, Hongjoong’s boyfriend, and Ryujin and her friends, there were a total of nineteen people crowded inside Chan and Minho’s apartment, scattered throughout the living room, munching on pizza and passing around drinks. True to their word, Chan and Minho had bought them all plenty of alcohol, though everyone seemed much more interested in all the pizza that Coach Wang had bought them, and there had been several debates about whether pineapple deserved to be on pizza or not.

It was almost surprising how fast time had flown by. Jeongin obviously remembered the first time he’d ever come to Chan’s place for a party. Now, almost an entire semester later, he not only had so many new friends, he had Seungmin for a boyfriend. It was almost funny, thinking back on it, how convinced Jeongin had once been that Seungmin would never return his feelings, when now in the present, Jeongin could barely even remember what it was like to not be able to lean against Seungmin so happily whenever he wanted to.

Meanwhile, Changbin and Hyunjin had been cornered by the others. The first thing they’d done once everyone had gathered at the party was announce that they were officially dating. It’d taken everyone by surprise, even Jeongin, who had known they were dating from Seungmin, and after a round of congratulations, Hongjoong, Wooyoung and Mingi, the three other juniors on the team and Changbin’s good friends, had sat Changbin and Hyunjin down and demanded to know everything about how they’d started dating.

As their questioning quickly turned into a round of babying Hyunjin and reminding him to let them know if Changbin ever did anything to upset Hyunjin, Jeongin turned his attention across the circle.

Seonghwa and Ryujin were still hyping up Felix for getting into a fight. The two of them were the hockey team’s biggest fans at this point, and Jeongin had the feeling both of them would’ve happily murdered the bastard who’d hurt Chan if they got the opportunity. Felix looked half embarrassed, half proud by their excitement, insisting it was only because he hadn’t wanted Jisung to get into a fight. Luckily for Felix, Jisung was too busy singing karaoke with Yedam and the rest of Ryujin’s friends, or else Jeongin was sure Jisung might’ve butted into the conversation to insist that he would’ve been perfectly capable of winning a fight.

And then, of course, there was Chan and Minho.

Jeongin wasn’t really paying them much attention, just like the rest of the party guests. That seemed to be the unspoken rule at this point, that everyone would leave Chan and Minho alone if they weren’t joining the group. They’d taken up the couch again like usual, though this time, Chan had been forcefully seated there by Minho. Chan’s hand was wrapped in a pack of ice again, though Jeongin had noticed that the swelling had gone down from the many times Chan had removed it to try and show Minho he was fine. Despite it all, Minho continued to ignore all of Chan’s protests, and Jeongin had watched as Minho busied himself with taking care of Chan, bringing him endless plates of pizza and even offering to feed him as they sat next to each other on the couch.

It would’ve again been a strangely domestic scene, if Minho hadn’t had an almost murderous look in his eyes whenever Chan tried to grumble about how he was being pampered.

“It’s not like I broke my leg or something, Minho,” Chan complained loudly enough for everyone else to hear. “I can still walk, you know.”

“Nope, you’re sitting here until your hand is all healed,” Minho replied as he stuffed some more pizza into Chan’s mouth. “I just know the moment you start walking about, you’re going to start thinking about work or something again and then you’ll forget to take care of your injury.”

“And what if I need to go to the bathroom or something? Or how about when I need to go to bed? Are you telling me to sleep here on the couch?” Chan replied even as he cheerfully let Minho feed him more pizza.

“I’ll just carry you wherever you need to go,” was Minho’s deadpanned response, though a small smile crept onto his lips as he grabbed a tissue and wiped some sauce from the corner of Chan’s mouth.

For once, Chan didn’t return the smile. He grabbed Minho by the wrist with his good hand and quietly murmured, “Hey, Min, I’m serious. You don’t need to feel obligated to take care of me.”

“No one’s forcing me to take care of you,” Minho harshly replied, brushing Chan’s hand off.

“Then why are you acting like this?” Chan asked. “Remember beginning of the semester, when I tripped over Dori and hit my elbow really hard? You wouldn’t stop laughing at me.”

“This and that are two different matters,” Minho grumbled. “You only got injured this time because you did the dumb thing by trying to play hero.”

“Well, if I hadn’t then—”

“Yes, I know, I’d be the one with the worse injury,” Minho said quietly, taking Chan’s injured hand and helping him take off the pack of ice. Minho patted Chan’s hand gingerly, an unreadable expression on his face as he said, “Look, I’m grateful, Chan, but I’m not going to be happy that you got yourself hurt in my place.”

“I know, but there’s no need for you to feel responsible about it either,” Chan said.

Minho’s lips formed a pout as he tried to deflect. “Fine, I feel bad about your hand, but that’s not why I’m taking care of you, okay? You’re a good friend, Chan, so of course I’d want to take care of you if you’re hurt.”

Chan’s eyes twinkled at the confession. He giggled, “Oh, what’s this? So you do care about me, Min! I’m so touched.”

“Chan, you—!” Minho’s ears flushed a deep red immediately as he sat up indignantly on the couch.

Chan was quicker though, because he immediately pointed in the opposite direction and convincingly gasped, “Wait, look, what’s Dori trying to do?”

Minho turned his head around in the direction Chan was pointing, and Chan took the chance to bolt off the couch and escape before Minho could catch him. Chan ran up to Jisung first, knowing he could use Jisung to shield himself from Minho, while Jisung dramatically cackled, “Chan! You finally escaped from Minho’s clutches!”

Chan laughed as he looped his arm around Jisung’s shoulder, steering them towards the center of the living room as he shouted, “All right, boys and girls, let’s get this party started!”

Immediately, the room burst into cheers. Minho rolled his eyes at Chan, but even as he shook his head, Minho couldn’t help but smile fondly when Chan turned away, asking everyone if there were any games they wanted to play.

“Oh, and Changbin! Make me a drink!” Chan suddenly shouted after they decided to start with a round of Uno. “Preferably something that’ll hide the taste of alcohol!”

Changbin, who’d taken the chance to escape his friends’ questioning and pour himself a drink, made a confused face as he looked from Chan to Minho, whose eyes said everything Changbin needed to know.

“Uh, okay, sure,” Changbin agreed, raising an eyebrow at Minho who rolled his eyes in response. Raising his voice a little, he called out, “Minho, you want anything too?”

“Make me something that’ll knock me right out,” Minho grumbled. “You all are keeping me up past my bedtime.”

“All right, love you too,” Changbin snickered, shooting Minho a finger heart before turning to grab some cups to whisk up to drinks. Seungmin wandered over to keep Changbin company, watching curiously as Changbin mixed drinks together. The others pulled Chan down to sit in the circle with them, while Minho obstinately stayed on the couch, luring Dori into his arms and contentedly petting his cat as she settled down in his lap.

As Seungmin watched Changbin poured out three shots of rum, he asked, “Do you even know what you’re doing?”

“Of course I do,” Changbin huffed indignantly. “We might not get the chance to drink often, but what kind of friend would I be if I didn’t know how Minho liked his drinks?”

“How do you even know all this?” Seungmin asked, watching in amusement as Changbin poured out three shots of rum into Minho’s cup.

“Oh, that’s right, you guys probably don’t know, but Minho and I used to be drinking buddies at these parties,” Changbin explained, moving on to crack open a can of pineapple juice. “We joined the team around the same time, I think maybe a month or two into the semester? Back then, Chan still kinda preferred to keep to himself, and since he doesn’t really drink, he never bothered to show up to these kinds of parties. Minho and I were like the only two people who didn’t really know anyone on the team other than Chan, so we often ended up drinking together at these events until we finally learned our lesson.”

“Learned your lesson?” Seungmin asked, raising an eyebrow. “You’re making it sound like you guys did something bad.”

“I don’t mean it like that,” Changbin whined as he added copious amounts of sprite into Minho’s drink. “Basically, alcohol makes Minho super sleepy, and I always ended up being the one who had to practically carry Minho back to his dorm, so after a few parties, I guess we both just decided it wasn’t worth drinking alcohol anymore, though it’s also why I know three shots is more than enough to knock Minho out, even with all this going on.”

Changbin gestured vaguely at the commotion around them, just as Jisung belted out a high note, and everyone in the circle starting going around, competing to see who could sing even higher. Jeongin won when he let out a dolphin scream, and Seungmin laughed as he watched Yedam tackle Jeongin to the floor for nearly bursting everyone’s eardrums. It was nice seeing Jeongin having fun with his friends, especially now that Seungmin knew he didn’t have a reason to be jealous anymore.

Changbin grabbed another cup as he set Minho’s drink to the side.

“You want something to drink?” Changbin offered.

“No thanks,” Seungmin replied, shaking his head emphatically. “The last time I had too much to drink was back in high school, and it made me have this inexplicable urge to just start gushing about how much I loved Jeongin. I am not risking that again.”

“You’d think now that you guys are dating, you’d be more willing to talk about how much you love him,” Changbin teased.

“Please, he teases me enough for not realizing we’ve practically been in love for like years,” Seungmin groaned, rolling his eyes. “Besides, if I am going to tell Jeongin how much I love him, it’s certainly not going to be in front of you lot.”

“Fair enough,” Changbin grinned, mixing together more pineapple juice and sprite in the second cup before handing the two cups to Seungmin. “Would you mind bringing that to Minho and Chan? Minho’s is the one on the right. Don’t mix them up, please. Minho might kill me if you give Chan the wrong drink.”

“Wait, but…” Seungmin paused, glancing from the drinks to Changbin, “Chan’s drink, you haven’t put any—”

Changbin immediately held up a finger to his lips, shushing him. “It’s fine, it’s not like Chan’s gonna know the difference.”

* * *

Less than an hour later, Minho was fast asleep on the couch.

No one had really been paying him much attention, so they’d all been startled when Minho suddenly shouted something incomprehensible in his sleep. Dori, who’d been sleeping peacefully on his chest up until that point, leapt off Minho’s chest and bounded away to hide in Jeongin’s lap, prompting Jeongin to exclaim, “Hah! Dori does like me best!”

Meanwhile, Jisung pranced over to playfully poke Minho on the cheek. He cooed, “Aww, is he sleep-talking again?”

“Jisung, you know not to poke sleeping tigers,” Hyunjin said teasingly. “He’ll kill you if he wakes up.”

“Not if he doesn’t find out,” Jisung stuck his tongue back at Hyunjin, but he quickly backed off. Meanwhile, Chan had gotten up from where he was sitting and started heading towards Minho’s closed bedroom door.

“Uh, Chan? Where are you going?” Changbin called after him.

“Getting him a blanket,” Chan answered honestly, fumbling a little with the door knob.

“We’ll get him one for you. Minho said you aren’t supposed to do anything,” Felix said, though no one really made a move to get up, already anticipating Chan’s response.

“It’s fine,” Chan said, waving them off. “He’s babied me long enough already. It’s finally my turn to take care of him.”

Chan finally got the door open and disappeared into Minho’s bedroom, coming back with a small fleece blanket. Everyone was watching Chan at this point, but somehow, Chan didn’t seem to notice. It was like he’d forgotten the party was even happening, oblivious to the deafening silence that had fallen over the entire group.

Chan winced a little as he used his injured hand to hold onto the ends of the blanket, draping the blanket over Minho’s body. He took a moment gaze down at Minho’s sleeping face, before he reached down to gently brush Minho’s bangs out of his closed eyes. Minho’s eyes scrunched up a little at the contact, his mouth muttering something undecipherable before he fell silent again, breathing softly.

Chan rubbed his thumb lightly against Minho’s forehead, over the spot where Minho could’ve been struck on the forehead, if Chan hadn’t protected him in time.

“Hey, Min, I’m so glad you’re okay,” Chan whispered, and he leaned down and pressed a kiss to Minho’s forehead.

There was one moment of silence, as Chan straightened up, his eyes gazing at Minho’s sleeping face with nothing but a loving tenderness, before the room filled with a chorus of gasps.

Chan immediately stiffened. He was slow to turn around to face the room, but when he did, there was an embarrassed yet goofy smile on his face.

“Oh, haha, I forgot you were all here,” Chan laughed, scratching the back of his head with his good hand, his tone forcibly composed.

“You just casually forgot we were here,” Changbin deadpanned, raising an eyebrow.

Chan shrugged. He wandered over towards the circle, immediately pulling Felix into a hug and pressing a sloppy kiss to Felix’s temple as well. Felix let out a little squeal, bursting into laughter as he hugged Chan back with all his might.

“My head’s kinda fuzzy,” Chan hummed, biting back another laugh when he let go. “You think it’s the alcohol?”

Jisung let out a delighted gasp. “Chan’s an affectionate drunk? Wait, I want a kiss too!”

Jisung launched himself at Chan and missed, toppling over Felix instead and nearly smacking his face into Felix’s. Luckily for him, Chan pulled him off of Felix before the embarrassment of his blunder could settle in. Jisung and Felix remained latched onto either side of Chan, snuggling up to their captain before their teammates joined in, everyone eager to take advantage of the situation to shower Chan with some affection.

Amidst all the chaos, two pair of eyes exchanged glances across the room. Seungmin raised his eyebrows, but Changbin just shook his head and put a finger to his lips, before he too ran up to steal a hug from Chan as well.


	9. An Early Morning Walk for Cookies (ft. Chan is a dumbass)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for 100+ kudos!

Felix was freezing by the time he reached Chan’s place.

They were in the middle of winter break, and while Felix was perfectly happy to not have any homework to do, he’d be lying if he said he didn’t miss his friends. Unfortunately, amongst his teammates, only Changbin and Chan had stayed at school for break, and they’d both opted for the antisocial route of locking themselves in their rooms to churn out music. Felix could only spend so much time alone playing games, and by the second week, Felix had had enough.

It wasn’t his fault that Chan and Minho had a spare key underneath the welcome mat to their front door. They were honestly just asking to be broken into at that point, so who was Felix to not take advantage of the fact that his friends owned a fully stocked kitchen that he could just waltz into and use whenever he wanted to?

Sure, he didn’t technically have permission, and yes, it was also five in the morning, but Minho wasn’t going to be there to use the kitchen, and Felix wanted homemade cookies, so the pros of breaking into Chan and Minho’s place clearly outweighed the cons.

It also couldn’t possibly be his fault that upon entering the apartment, Felix had immediately bumped into the hockey sticks propped up by the door and sent them crashing into the ground.

As Felix groped around for the lights, swearing under his breath, he immediately heard the sound of pounding footsteps before a bedroom dorm was flung open and Chan shouted, “Changbin, I swear, if you’ve broken something again—Oh, Felix! What are you doing here?”

Felix scrutinized Chan as the lights flickered on. “Should I be worried that your first reaction wasn’t to assume I was a burglar or something?”

“Hmm, good point,” Chan mused for a moment, before giving into laughter. “Well, I think it’s fine. It’s not like there’s much to steal that’s not in my room. You’re lucky Minho’s not here though.”

“I know,” Felix said, shuddering a little at the thought even though he knew Minho wasn’t there. “Changbin’s told me plenty of stories about how he’s nearly been killed by Minho for sneaking in.”

“I’m assuming he’s also the one who told you where the spare key was?”

“Yep,” Felix said, picking up his bags and wandering towards the kitchen as if he were at home.

Chan meandered after him, shaking his head. “We keep meaning to hide the key in a new place, but at this point, I think Minho just likes having the excuse to try and kill Changbin.”

That made Felix laugh. As he cheerfully continued to unpack the goods he brought, Chan asked, “So, what are you making?”

“Cookies!” Felix replied happily as he slammed a 1kg bag of flour onto the countertop. “I’m sick and tired of the ones in the dining hall, and then I remembered I have great friends who will let me borrow their kitchen!”

“Borrowing would imply you asked for permission first,” Chan chuckled, but he slid into a seat at the counter and continued to watch Felix unpack the ingredients he’d brought. His eyes wandered around the kitchen before he saw the clock.

“Wait, it’s five? Felix, what’re you doing here so early in the morning?” Chan exclaimed, swiping the utensils out of Felix’s hand.

“I lost track of time playing games, and then I wanted cookies,” Felix replied honestly, as if that were a perfectly valid reason to be invade someone else’s kitchen before the sun had even come up. “You’re one to talk, Chan. What are you doing up?”

“I had work to do,” Chan said, still holding Felix’s stuff hostage. “Besides, my house, my rules. As your captain, I have half the mind to force you take a nap right now.”

“But Chan! Cookies!” Felix protested. “Don’t you want cookies?”

Chan pursed his lips. With one eyebrow raised, he said, “Were you going to make chocolate chip?”

“Uh, no,” Felix frowned, “but I can go buy some chocolate chips now and then make them?”

“Now?” Chan glanced at the clock again before laughing. “You know what? Sure, let’s go now. Do you have a warmer coat?”

Felix looked down at what he was wearing. He’d been so eager to come make cookies that he’d only grabbed a windbreaker off his bedpost. He shrugged. “I’ll be fine.”

“Nope, not on my watch,” Chan said. Felix watched as Chan lumbered back into his room before returning with a familiar baby blue fur coat. “Here, take this.”

“That’s Minho’s.”

“So? He always looks warm and cozy in it,” Chan said, a smile growing on his face. “I’m sure he won’t mind if you borrow it.”

“No, I meant, why was Minho’s jacket in your room?”

Chan’s face was forcibly blank. “I, uh, borrowed it and forgot to take it off at the door.”

Felix raised an eyebrow at Chan. That was a lie if Felix ever saw one. Chan was the type of person who would happily walk out into the cold in just long sleeves and shorts, and his black-hole of a closet was more than enough proof that Chan’s only style was various shades of black. Felix could think of only one possible reason Chan might’ve “borrowed” Minho’s warm, baby blue coat to wear.

“Looks like someone misses Minho,” Felix smirked, quickly taking the coat from Chan and throwing it on. Wearing Minho’s precious coat meant the chances of Chan tackling or tickling him decreased immensely, since Chan would never risk ruining Minho’s possessions. “Did you think wearing it would make it seem like he’s here with you?”

A glance at Chan told him he was right. Chan had his lips pursed tightly together as he tried to look composed, but his bright red ears were giving him away.

“I just—Fine, so maybe I’ve been keeping it around to remind me of Minho. It’s weird living in this place alone, okay?” Chan said, running a hand through his hair as he made a pouty face at Felix.

“Hey, I’m not judging,” Felix said, snuggling up in Minho’s jacket. “His clothes are comfy. I might just come over and steal his clothes more often.”

“Don’t you dare.” Chan shook a finger at him. “He might not admit it, but he’s way too soft for all of you, so I’m going to end up the one suffering his wrath if you steal his clothes.”

Felix stuck his tongue out at Chan, but he immediately hooked his arm around Chan’s and started dragging him out the door.

“Fine, no stealing, but I’m gonna need you to pay for those chocolate chips.”

* * *

“Damn, I should’ve known they wouldn’t be open yet,” Felix grumbled, plopping down on a bench in front of the store.

“The sun’s not even up yet,” Chan laughed, affectionately rubbing the top of Felix’s head. “I don’t know why you would even think they’re open.”

“You didn’t stop me,” Felix accused.

“I thought your expression would be funny,” Chan admitted, sitting down next to Felix. “That, and I realized I could use the walk.”

“A walk?” Felix asked, raising his eyebrows. “That’s new. You have writer’s block or something?”

Chan shrugged. “Kinda? I’ve just been thinking a lot lately you know, about the team and my future.”

“Ugh, graduation,” Felix hunched his shoulders up, feeling a shiver run through his body. “I can’t imagine having to think about that yet.”

“Well, enjoy it while you can,” Chan teased, reaching over to ruffle Felix’s hair affectionately.

Felix grinned back, taking advantage of the situation to huddle closer to Chan for warmth as he asked, “You decided on what you’re going to do yet?”

“Eh, well, I’ve got to finish up my senior project, but in the meantime, you know how Changbin, Jisung, and I have been working on making a mixtape, right?” Chan said. “With luck, we’ll send it out by the end of the school year, see if it gets us anywhere. Either way, I’ll probably stick around in the area, get a part-time job or something so the three of us can keep working together. It’s hard to believe, but at this point, I can’t imagine not working on music without Changbin and Jisung by my side, so I’m going to do whatever it takes to make sure we succeed together.”

Felix smiled up at Chan. “So you’ll be around next year?”

“That’s the plan,” Chan grinned, squeezing Felix tightly. “You’re going to have to put up with me for at least another year, buddy.”

“Well that’s perfectly fine with me,” Felix replied, returning Chan’s hug. “I’m so glad I don’t have to worry about saying goodbye to you anytime soon.”

They remained hugging for a while, letting the silence wash over them in the cold. There was a question on the tip of Felix’s tongue, one he’d been meaning to ask for a while, but something was keeping Felix from voicing it. Felix wondered if a part of him was scared, that this one question might ruin the comfortable atmosphere around them.

Despite it all though, Felix couldn’t help himself. Peeling himself out of Chan’s hug, Felix asked, “What’s Minho going to do? I don’t think I’ve actually asked him about it.”

Felix didn’t miss the way Chan’s smile faltered. Chan’s voice was subdued as he answered, “Well, he applied to vet school, so he’s been waiting to hear back about that, but I have a feeling that’s where he’ll be next year.”

From the way Chan let out a heavy sigh, Felix could guess what Chan was leaving unsaid. That unlike Chan, Minho was not going to be sticking around, and that he really would be leaving them all to start his new chapter of life.

“Oh, he did mention wanting to start a YouTube channel in the meantime,” Chan said, quickly brightening up as he turned towards Felix. “You should talk to him about it, Felix. I’m sure he’d love to film some videos with you or Hyunjin.”

“Yeah, I’ll ask,” Felix echoed, but his mind was focused elsewhere, specifically on the thin smile plastered across Chan’s face.

He hadn’t wanted to point it out earlier, but it was obvious now that something was clearly off with Chan. He knew Chan had always had trouble sleeping, and his tendency to work late into the night wasn’t new, but even then, Chan had always had a lively aura about him, an infectious energy that helped him be a strong leader on and off the ice.

Chan didn’t have that kind of energy with him now.

His kindness still shone through his every smile, but Felix could sense the lethargy behind it. His eye bags were darker, and there was a certain slowness to Chan’s movements that suggested it wasn’t just the sleep deprivation to blame.

Felix watched as Chan rubbed his hands together, warming them with his breath. 

“Chan, can I ask you a question?” Felix said quietly, his voice breaking through the quiet morning air.

Chan glanced at Felix, still smiling. “Sure, what’s up?”

“You look like shit. Are you okay?”

For a moment, Chan didn’t move, his smile slowly shrinking away until it was replaced by a blank look. He stared at Felix like he was still processing what Felix had just said, until finally Chan heaved a sigh. He leaned back against the bench. His eyes trained up at sky above them, Chan asked, “It’s that obvious?”

“Yeah,” Felix said, mimicking Chan’s position and letting his eyes drink in the sight of the lightening sky and the drifting gray clouds. “I know it’s not my place to ask, but have you been taking care of yourself at all?”

“I’m trying,” Chan replied heavily. “I guess, with the place to myself, it was a little too easy to slip back into my old habits. Minho took Dori home with him, so it’s not like I’ve had reason to do anything but work, and since Jisung left with Minho too, Changbin and I haven’t really had reason to meet up either.”

“Oh, true,” Felix echoed, though his heart wasn’t in it.

He’d been playing so many games that he’d almost forgotten that Jisung had gone home with Minho. Then again, Felix had only started playing so many games in the first place because he’d wanted to forget that Jisung wasn’t around, so he supposed he’d succeeded there.

Jisung’s family lived in Malaysia, and so last year, Jisung had stuck around for winter break, excited to experience snow and spend time with his friends. It was how Felix had gotten to know Jisung so well. They’d spent almost every day of last winter break together, playing games, getting breakfast, lunch, and then dinner, screaming and running around excitedly outside whenever it snowed, and sleeping over in each others’ rooms, watching movies and chatting away into the night.

This year, Minho had invited Jisung to go home with him for break. Felix remembered how excited Jisung had been to finally meet Minho’s cats, and Felix knew this was probably one of Jisung’s last chances to spend some quality time with Minho before he graduated.

It didn’t make it hurt any less though.

Felix knew he was being stupid. Just because he was Jisung’s best friend didn’t mean Jisung would always choose to spend time with Felix, and he knew they’d go right back to being glued at the hip once Jisung returned and the new semester started.

Despite that, Felix’s heart still seemed to ache with each passing day that he didn’t spend with Jisung around.

Was it normal to miss your friends like this?

Felix wasn’t too sure anymore.

“Felix, you okay?”

Chan’s gentle voice broke through Felix’s thoughts. Felix glanced over to find that Chan was staring at him with a concerned look in his eyes. Felix brushed Chan off, trying to rouse himself from his thoughts as he said, “I’m fine.”

There was a knowing look in Chan’s eyes as he reached out to ruffle Felix’s hair. “Let me guess, you miss Jisung.”

“Hey, we’re talking about you right now, not me!” Felix protested, even as Chan’s eyes twinkled back at him. Felix made a face at Chan. “I thought you were doing okay this year with taking care of yourself! What’s Minho going to say if he comes back and sees you like this?”

“He’ll probably kill me,” Chan laughed. “It’s not my fault though. He’s the one who normally makes me food after all.”

“Still, it wasn’t this bad last year, right?” Felix pointed out.

“True,” Chan admitted. “I guess I got so used to living with Minho that I completely forgot how I managed to survive college on my own.”

There was a slight pause, as Chan pondered his thoughts with a bemused smile. He nodded slightly and murmured to no one in particular, “Honestly, it’s not even that I’m not sleeping enough. That hasn’t changed much, but at least when Minho’s around, just being able to see his smile in the morning as he made us both breakfast was the best energy boost I could ask for.”

Felix scoffed at the fond look on Chan’s face.

“Sounds like someone’s in love.”

Chan’s ears turned bright red, and Felix had a feeling it wasn’t from the cold. He assumed Chan would deflect, but as the silence dragged on, Felix eyes shifted towards Chan in surprise.

“What?” Chan huffed. “You look like you just saw a ghost.”

“You didn’t brush me off like usual,” Felix said, his eyes wide. “So you are in love with Minho.”

Chan held Felix’s gaze for a long time before finally cracking a shy smile.

“Yeah. I really am.”

Felix’s jaw dropped, which made Chan burst into laughter as he said, “What are you surprised for? You guys are the ones who’ve been teasing me about my supposed crush this whole time.”

“Yeah, but, like, you’ve always denied it or joked about it,” Felix said. “None of us could really tell if you actually knew about your feelings or not.”

“But you knew I liked Minho?”

“I mean, yeah,” Felix shrugged. “I don’t know who you’re trying to fool, but you look at Minho like he hung the moon and the stars in the sky. If anything, I’m more surprised Minho hasn’t noticed yet.”

Chan let out a muffled scoff, like he found something terribly unfunny about what Felix had just said. Before Felix could question him about it though, Chan said, “Well, I don’t suppose there’s any point hiding it from you any longer, Felix. You’re right, I do like Minho. I have for a while now.”

“Since when?” Felix demanded, scooting closer to Chan. He had never heard Chan talk about his feelings before, and this was too good of an opportunity to pass up.

Chan pursed his lips, cupping his chin with one hand as he tried to think. “Honestly, I’ve probably had a crush on him since we first met. I didn’t really acknowledge it until late last year though.”

“Wait, last year?” Felix echoed, rounding on Chan. “So all this time, when you were saying you guys were just friends, you were lying?”

“I’m not lying,” Chan laughed, almost too casual for someone talking about his crush. “We're just friends.”

Felix frowned. Chan’s smile was genuine, almost too genuine, and Felix didn’t like it one bit. He pressed on, “Then why are admitting that you like him now, when you’ve been playing it off all year?”

“Because I don’t want you to end up like me,” Chan said, his expression suddenly shifting into something more serious. When Felix blinked back in confusion, Chan put a hand on Felix’s shoulder and said, “Felix, I’m not going to pressure you or anything. How you feel and what you do with your feelings is up to you, but if you do ever find someone you like, don't doubt yourself, Felix. Don’t waste your chance like I did.”

Felix felt a lump form in his throat.

Maybe it was the tiredness in Chan’s eyes, or maybe it was the lingering darkness that clung to Chan’s pale features, casting shadows across his eyes, but there was something terribly sad about the look on Chan’s face. It was almost as if in giving Felix advice, something inside of Chan was withering away, hidden somewhere deep inside Chan’s heart.

Felix gulped.

“Chan, if you really do love Minho, why haven’t you tried confessing to him yet?”

Chan didn’t answer.

The winds picked up around them as the first light broke through the horizon, casting the sky in a brilliant glow of orange and blue. Slowly, the darkness around them gave way to the hazy grays of a cloudy dawn. In the distance, Felix could hear the sounds of passing cars, and he watched as a car pulled up into the parking lot. The store owner stepped out and waved at Felix and Chan, looking surprised that someone was there waiting for the store to open.

Chan stood up and waved back, greeting the store owner cheerfully and helping him carry some things into the store.

Still, Chan hadn’t answered the question.

Felix followed them inside the store. The store owner switched on the heater, and Felix huddled close to it, basking in the waves of warmth, watching as Chan purposely avoided Felix’s gaze as he chatted away with the store owner, offering to help him set up for the day.

Felix had expected Chan to dodge the question. He’d been friends with Chan for long enough to know exactly what was going on Chan’s mind.

It wasn’t that Chan didn’t have an answer, and it wasn’t that Chan hadn’t known how to answer either.

Chan simply hadn’t thought it was worth answering Felix, because Chan had already made up his mind.

Chan was giving up.

And with spring and graduation coming ever closer, Felix decided he’d had enough of sitting back and watching Chan skate around the topic of his feelings. Now that Chan had in fact admitted to liking Minho, Felix wasn’t going to let Chan give up on the one person who could always brighten Chan’s day.

It was time to take matters into his own hands, and Felix knew exactly what he needed to do.


	10. Operation MinChan

“And with that, I’d like to thank you all for joining me for the first meeting of Operation MinChan,” Felix declared, proudly showing off the whiteboard he’d decorated for the occasion.

They were currently sitting in one of the smaller lecture rooms. Felix had reserved a slot of time specifically for this meeting, which was probably obnoxious but also in his mind incredibly justified because of the subject at hand, and together, with Jisung, they’d excitedly dragged their friends along to initiate the start of their very secret plan.

Their friends looked less enthused.

Changbin had one hand half-covering his face in exasperation as he demanded, “What the hell is a MinChan?”

“I think he’s referring to Minho and Chan,” Seungmin chimed in. He looked confused as to why the word MinChan had been drawn in big, bubbly letters while surrounded by lots of hearts.

“Oh, are we finally trying to make them get together?” Jeongin asked, perking up immediately. “That sounds fun.”

“Weren’t we going to just let Chan and Minho sort things out on their own?” Hyunjin spoke up, his eyes turning towards Felix and Jisung, both still standing at the front of the room.

“Well, ideally we would, but I think we’ve reached a point where some meddling may be required,” Felix replied as he sat down at the round table, Jisung pulling up a seat next to him.

“What do you mean?”

“I talked to Chan over break, and he admitted to liking Minho. Even used the word ‘love’.”

Everyone sat up immediately, eyes wide with surprise.

“He did?” Jeongin exclaimed, leaning forward excitedly. “When’d he realize?”

Jisung shook his head disapprovingly.

“Apparently he’s known for a while, even before we started teasing them about it.”

“And he didn’t think to tell any of us?” Changbin grumbled, crossing his arms.

“I know right? I feel so betrayed.”

There was a brief pause, before Seungmin spoke up with a frown. “Wait, but this is Chan we’re talking about. If he’s known for a while, why hasn’t he confessed yet? Chan’s not the type to just hide his feelings, right?”

Felix and Jisung exchanged a look, their expressions looking grim.

“That’s why I said some intervention may be necessary,” Felix said. “Chan didn’t tell me why exactly, but I have a bad feeling that he’s not going to confess. I don’t know what’s stopping him, but I think the situation’s going to keep looking hopeless if we don’t step in to help.”

A thoughtful atmosphere fell over the group. Jeongin was the first to break the silence. 

“Okay, so maybe Chan’s not going to do anything, but it takes two to be in a relationship, right? Can’t we figure out a way to get Minho to confess instead?”

“That’s the problem though, isn’t it?” Hyunjin pointed out. “I know we’re all pretty sure that Minho also loves Chan, but he hasn’t told any of us about it, has he? Do we even know if Minho knows about his feelings?”

“Well, there is one way we can find out for sure,” Felix said, turning to look at Jisung, who immediately frowned.

“Wait, why are you looking at me like that?” Jisung demanded.

“Come on, Jisung, you’re Minho’s best friend.”

“That doesn’t mean he’s going to tell me.”

“Yeah, but if anyone’s can get him to admit to liking Chan, it’s you,” Felix replied. “You don’t even have to ask about Chan. Just pretend you want love advice or something. Then we’ll at least be able to know how he feels about relationships in general.”

“Minho and I just don’t talk about romance, okay?” Jisung grumbled, crossing his arms tightly across his chest. “Besides, Minho and I have this silent agreement to not talk about the people we like. If I try to bug Minho about Chan, that’ll just give him the right to make fun of me for my crush, and I am not giving him that chance.”

“Wait.” Something flitted across Felix’s face, an emotion almost too fast to catch before Felix rounded on Jisung, his eyes wide. Felix exclaimed, “Jisung, you have a crush? How come you’ve never told me?”

“What, I—no, I don’t!” Jisung backtracked, stumbling over his words. “I’m just talking about the hypothetical here!”

“Yeah, but if you didn’t have a crush, you wouldn’t be afraid of asking Minho about Chan,” Felix pointed out with a frown. “So that means you do have a crush.”

Jisung scowled, scrunching his eyes up as he tried looking at anything but Felix.

“Okay, fine, so what if I do?” Jisung huffed. “We’re talking about Minho and Chan here. Who cares about my crush?”

“Who cares?” Felix repeated, his eyes bugging wide open. “Jisung, come on! We’re best friends, aren’t we? Of course, I care! Forget Minho and Chan, Jisung, we’re going to get you a date first!”

“What, no! Why would you do that?” Jisung exclaimed, pushing his seat to skid away from Felix. “I’m not interested in a relationship, we’ve been over this, Lix.”

“But your crush—!”

“He doesn’t like me back anyways,” Jisung interrupted, pointedly looking away from Felix, “so it’s fine, really.”

The room went silent. Jeongin exchanged glances with Seungmin, glad to see he wasn’t the only one who felt incredibly awkward.

It was pretty much an open secret amongst the team that Jisung had a crush on Felix. How Felix hadn’t noticed was beyond Jeongin, but even from the beginning, Jeongin had noticed that Jisung and Felix were always paired together like two peas in a pod, and Jisung’s eyes almost always followed Felix wherever he went.

Despite that, unlike the teasing often directed at Minho and Chan, no one ever teased Jisung about his feelings in front of Felix. Mainly because Felix remained completely oblivious, but also partly because Jisung had insisted, multiple times, that he didn’t want a relationship.

Which would’ve been valid, if not for the fact that the one time Felix hadn’t gone to a party, Jisung had ended up blackout drunk and spent the entire time moping about how he was never going to get into a relationship because Felix didn’t love him back.

So perhaps Jisung wasn’t being entirely honest.

Hyunjin cleared his throat loudly, hoping to get back on topic, which seemed to lift the heavy atmosphere.

“Well, there must be some other way we can confirm that Minho likes Chan, right?”

“Actually, I think I have something we can use as evidence,” Changbin said, resting his chin thoughtfully on his propped up fist. He glanced at Hyunjin and said, “Remember end of last semester? When he asked us what it was like to not be in a serious relationship?”

“Oh, yeah, I remember thinking that was strange,” Hyunjin commented, pursing his lips. Almost immediately, he sat up straight, exclaiming, “Wait, you think that was him wondering if he could be in a relationship like that with Chan?”

“I’m just saying,” Changbin shrugged, a smirk growing on his face. “I’ve gone home with them quite a few times after practice, and you don’t know how many times I’ve caught them ogling each other whenever one of them comes out of the shower without a shirt.”

“Ew! Don’t put that image in my mind!” Jeongin protested, making a face as Felix and Jisung also mimed gagging. “They’re like my parents, dude!”

“Changbin! How dare you scar the baby!” Hyunjin teased. He reached over to playfully cover Jeongin’s ears before he was shooed away by Seungmin.

“Even if what you said is true, Changbin,” Seungmin said, now possessively hugging a struggling Jeongin as if to keep him away from Hyunjin, “that doesn’t necessarily mean Minho is aware that he loves Chan, right?”

“True, but we’re talking about Minho here."

“Changbin’s right.” Jisung said, frowning a little. “If Minho’s showing enough emotion for us to be able to see that he’s in love, then there’s no way he doesn’t already know it himself.”

“Which means Minho also has no plans of confessing,” Felix concluded, sighing heavily as his expression turned grim. “Damn it, how did it end up like this?”

Jeongin had been silently brooding on his thoughts for a while now, having long since given up trying to wrestle his way out of Seungmin’s hug and now just contentedly soaking in Seungmin’s warmth. Seeing the gloomy atmosphere, Jeongin finally spoke up.

“I’ve been meaning to ask for a while, but I still don’t understand how none of you thought to wonder if they were in love until this year.”

“Now that you mention it…”

Changbin tapped the table thoughtfully.

“There’s one thing that can explain why we all were blind to the situation until Jeongin pointed it out, and also why we’re now stuck in a situation where neither Chan nor Minho wants to confess.”

“Really?”

Changbin nodded, his eyes focused particularly on Hyunjin and Jisung.

“Remember that stupid fight they had last year?”

Seungmin let out a groan, slamming his hand to his forehead as Hyunjin and Jisung both visibly shuddered, as if whatever Changbin was talking about brought back bad memories.

“No, you’ve gotta be kidding me. Is that seriously why…”

Felix trailed off, sinking back into his thoughts as he pressed his tongue up against the inside of his cheek.

“What are you guys talking about?” Jeongin asked, now thoroughly confused.

“Well,” Felix slowly said, “we all pretty much agreed to never talk about it again, but last year, these two —”

Felix gestured towards Hyunjin and Jisung, both of whom quickly turned their heads away with guilty looks on their faces.

“These two had this ugly spat going on, and — what were you two even fighting about again?”

“We weren’t fighting,” Jisung grumbled, tucking his knees up to his chest as he perched precariously on his chair. “I was just, Hyunjin's a good skater, you know? And you had good looks and got to dance with Minho, so I always felt a little intimidated and jealous. I didn’t know how to make friends either, so I lashed out like an asshole. Sorry, Hyunjin.”

“No, no, it’s not just your fault,” Hyunjin insisted, also looking apologetic. “You're really good at hockey, so I wanted to learn from you, but I also couldn’t help feeling jealous that you could make everything look so effortless. It’s my fault for getting riled up too.”

Jisung immediately pulled Hyunjin into a hug, nuzzling up to his friend.

“Aw, Hyunjin, I love you so much, man.”

“Me too,” Hyunjin agreed, as he latched his arms around Jisung. “I’m glad we’re friends now.”

Jeongin didn’t know what to make of this sudden 180 of emotions. The others were much less confused. Seungmin and Changbin were both rolling their eyes, clearly used to this exact scene, but when Jeongin looked closely, he could swear Felix’s smile had thinned out ever so slightly as his eyes remained glued to how tightly Hyunjin was hugging Jisung.

Jeongin had always found Felix hard to read. Felix was someone who thought a lot before he spoke, and he rarely ever let his thoughts show on his face. Jeongin wondered if Felix had even realized that he’d been making such a visibly irritated look, but as much as Jeongin wanted to ask, he was at a meeting for Operation MinChan, not Operation JiLix, so Jeongin cleared his throat loudly to bring the conversation back on topic.

“Not to disturb your little cuddlefest, but what does any of this have to do with Chan and Minho?”

“Ah, right,” Felix said, turning sharply back towards Jeongin, almost a little too hastily as Jisung and Hyunjin remained latched onto each other. “Jisung and Hyunjin were fighting, yeah? Well, Minho and Chan got involved, and that’s when everything went to shit.”

“How though?”

“Chan wanted Minho to mediate between me and Hyunjin, but Minho thought it’d be fine to just let us sort it out on our own,” Jisung explained, finally letting go over Hyunjin and scooting back towards his seat, hunching his shoulders slightly as he tried to curl up on himself with a guilty expression on his face. “Minho had already confronted me about being an asshole, and he was trying not to pick sides, so when Chan kept bugging him about it, I guess Minho just snapped, and things escalated from there.”

“Honestly, I think both of them were just dealing with a lot of other stuff in their lives, and their fight was the result of all that pent up stress, which is why it ended up being so bad,” Changbin added with a sigh. “Our team practically fell apart in the two weeks they spent giving each other to cold shoulder. A bunch of people quit temporarily because it was just so awkward watching Chan and Minho refuse to work with each other, and those were the worst two weeks of hockey I’ve ever seen us play. It was just a miserable experience for everyone, so when Hyunjin and Jisung finally became friends, and Chan and Minho made up, we all just collectively agreed to never talk about it ever again.”

“So that’s why none of you thought to noticed until I pointed it out?” Jeongin deadpanned. “Because you were all so glad they were back to normal that you didn’t even think to question why their normal was literally them being madly in love?”

“Well… when you put it like that…” Hyunjin drawled out, draping his arms around Changbin and fondly nuzzling up to him. “I’d blame it on us all being very bad at recognizing love.”

It was a loaded comment. Hyunjin’s eyes were on Felix the entire time he spoke, but Felix didn’t seem to notice.

Jisung did however, and he shot Hyunjin a glare as he tried to divert the topic away.

“So basically, this means Chan and Minho must be pretending they’re not into each other because they think there’s too much risk if they get into a relationship, right?”

“That does make the most sense,” Seungmin said. “Obviously, I don’t think there’d be any problem with them dating, but if they did ever get into a lover’s spat or some messy break up, our entire team might as well be doomed considering how badly we were all affected when they weren’t even our captains.”

His words made a disgruntled frown appear on Hyunjin's face. He grumbled, “Still, that’s stupid. We’re all here because we like playing hockey, so why the hell should hockey be the thing that’s preventing Chan and Minho from being happy together?”

“We could always wait until the season was over?” Jeongin suggested.

“And then have them play the whole ‘we’re graduating so it’s too late’ card? No way I’m giving them that chance,” Jisung huffed, crossing his arms tightly as his mouth curled into a scowl. “We’re going to make those two date, even if it’s the last thing I do.”

“Well, that’s exactly why we’re here to enact Operation MinChan, right?” Felix replied quite optimistically. “We’ve got a tough job ahead of us, but you guys have the relationship experience, and Jisung and I can abuse Chan and Minho’s trust, so now that we have a good idea why they’re not confessing to each other, I’m sure we can come up with a plan that’ll show them that there’s no need to worry about their relationship affecting the team.”

“You’re that confident in us?” Changbin asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Yep! So, can we count on you guys to help?”

Felix and Jisung looked expectantly at the four of them, who exchanged glances and finally shrugged.

“I’m down,” Jeongin said. “It’s thanks to Chan and Minho that I really enjoyed joining the team, so if there’s anything I can do to help them be happy together, I’d be glad to join.”

“Same,” Seungmin agreed. “Minho was the one who encouraged me to confess to Jeongin too, so if anything, I owe it to Minho to help him with his relationship, even if we have to do it behind his back.”

Hyunjin chimed in, “Plus, it’s partly my fault they got into an argument last year, so if they’re really not dating because they think it’ll affect the team, there’s no way I can just stand by and let that happen.”

Everyone turned expectantly towards Changbin, who was the only one who had remained silent. He raised an eyebrow back at them, pressing his lips thinly together like he was debating the pros and cons of the operation, before he finally sighed.

“Fine, fine, I’ll help too,” Changbin relented, “but before that, I have to ask. Seriously, what’s with the name Operation MinChan? Are we spies or something?”

“We’re not spies, but now that you guys are here, you’re going to have to swear to absolute secrecy,” Jisung said seriously. “Also, the name’s my brainchild, so don’t you dare say anything bad about it.”

Changbin scoffed, muttering something about how Jisung’s talents were clearly better suited for writing lyrics instead.

As if to spite him, Jisung continued, “Actually, you know what else would make this plan better?”

“What?”

“Spy names!” Jisung grinned, clapping his hands together excitedly.

Jeongin and Seungmin bit back a laugh, as Changbin groaned, “Not again.”

“What do you mean again?” Jisung demanded, but Hyunjin quickly covered up his boyfriend’s grumbling by pressing a hand over Changbin’s mouth and loudly saying, “What’s the plan then?”

“Well, with the information we know now, we’ll have to make changes, but the plan so far is to trick them into having dinner at a nice restaurant," Felix answered. He got up and began scribbling away on the whiteboard, continuing, "That way, even when they do realize they’ve been duped, they’ll go through with it anyways because they’ll feel too bad about wasting our reservation. The funds for that are TBD, but that’s the last of our worries.”

“What matters is creating a mood that’ll make them confess, right? It has to make them feel so overwhelmed with their feelings that the only thing they can do is admit to how much they love each other,” Jisung said, resting his chin in his hand as he nodded sagely. “What do you think, Felix?”

“I’m thinking candles, flowers, maybe nice music. You think the food makes a difference?”

“We’re going to make them eat rich people food. Of course it’ll make a difference!”

“Yeah, but does that mean we’ll need them to dress nice too?”

“Well…”

As Felix and Jisung continued to lay out their plans for a perfect date, lost in their own world, they failed to notice the other four exchange glances before they stealthily pulled out their phones.

**[Operation JiLix (6)]**

**Seungmo  
** Are you guys thinking what I’m thinking?

 **HYUN.E  
** they're totally just describing their idea of a perfect date rn

 **Agibbang  
** ~~and i thought minho and chan were oblivious~~ _(this message was deleted)  
_ how are they this oblivious

 **HYUN.E  
** tbf u and seungmin were just as bad

 **Agibbang _  
_**i would like to think that’s seungmin’s fault  
how was i supposed to know he has an F in flirting

 **Seungmo  
** HEY  
At least I confessed when I found out you liked me back!

 **Dwaekki  
** Yeah we gotta give Seungmin some credit for that  
At least hes not like a certain two people we know 🙄

 **HYUN.E.  
** that reminds me **  
@Lee Know** **@Genius Leader** respond pls

 **Dwaekki  
** Btw who named this group chat again

 **Agibbang  
** minho

 **Seungmo  
** I think Minho did.  
Oh.

 **Dwaekki  
** Huh  
He and Jisung really do think alike

 **Lee Know  
** what’s that supposed to mean?  
why are you even using this chat right now

 **Agibbang  
** we know how to make jisung and felix get together

 **Genius Leader  
** really? how??  
also  
minho  
can you please let me change my name?

 **Lee Know  
** no  
spy names are forever

 **Dwaekki  
** As much as I think these names are stupid I have to agree with Minho here  
There can only be one genius leader and thats you Chan

 **Agibbang  
** genius leader bang chan!

 **Seungmo  
** Genius Leader Bang Chan!

 **HYUN.E  
** GENIUS LEADER BANG CHAN!

 **Genius Leader  
** i-  
you know what, i’m not even going to bother asking what that was

 **Lee Know  
** can we focus?  
you guys said you had a plan

 **Seungmo**  
I do, but you have to promise not to be mad.

 **Lee Know  
** is there something that’s supposed to anger me?

 **HYUN.E**  
no  
unless knowing that u share the same braincell as jilix makes u angry

 **Lee Know  
**????

 **Dwaekki**  
You know how you roped us into operation jilix?  
Well now theyre trying to rope us into operation minchan

 **Lee Know  
** ………  
they’re doing what now?

 **Genius Leader  
** wait  
what’s a minchan?


	11. Operation JiLix is a Go

Jisung frowned at his phone as he made his way towards the restaurant.

It was Valentine’s Day, and after almost a month of planning, Operation MinChan was fully underway. Changbin had made a reservation for two at the nicest restaurant they could find downtown, and everyone on the team had ended up chipping in some money to cover the meal. Hyunjin had even helped Jisung and Felix prepare outfits for Minho and Chan, though Jisung hadn’t understood why Hyunjin seemed so adamant about getting nice outfits for Jisung and Felix as well.

“It’s for the show,” Hyunjin had insisted, even as he squinted at two different blazers that looked exactly the same to Jisung. “This way you’ll have an outfit to show them if they ever get suspicious. Besides, Changbin’s paying for it, and it never hurts to have a nice suit.”

Jisung couldn’t argue with that.

In the week leading up to Valentine’s Day, they’d had Seungmin and Jeongin act as sweet and affectionate as possible all throughout practice, much to Seungmin’s delight and Jeongin’s fake exasperation. Their status as the baby couple of the team meant their PDA was more likely to be met with fawning adoration than disgust, and it had the bonus effect of making anyone who was single feel even more so.

Jisung had certainly felt it, seeing how he’d ended the week wishing more desperately than ever that he could one day share that with Felix, but for the sake of the plan, Jisung had shut all those feelings down and packed them away deep inside his heart, where he was sure no one would find them.

All that’d been left was for Jisung to trick Minho into going to the restaurant with him, and for Felix to do the same with Chan. It’d been almost too easy to convince Minho to have a nice dinner to celebrate on their last Valentine’s Day together as single college students, and Felix had similarly had a breeze convincing Chan that just wanted to thank Chan for being a good friend.

What Chan and Minho wouldn’t know would be that neither Jisung nor Felix would show up.

Instead, Chan and Minho would undoubtedly end up finding each other in the lobby of said restaurant, and before they could realize they’d been tricked, the waiting hostess would then usher Chan and Minho inside for their fully paid romantic dinner.

It was a foolproof plan, one that would most definitely set up the perfect atmosphere for a romantic date, and Chan and Minho would be fools to not confess to each other there.

At least, it was supposed to have been a foolproof plan.

Thirty minutes before the reservation time, Minho had texted Jisung, telling him he was going to be late because Dori had just made a mess, and he’d asked Jisung to wait for him at the restaurant.

It was a valid excuse, and Jisung wasn’t about to risk losing their precious reservation, so somewhat begrudgingly, he’d put on the suit Hyunjin had helped him pick out and headed out for the restaurant. He’d considered texting Felix about the slight problem to their plan, but ultimately, Jisung hadn’t bothered. Chan would probably be there waiting at the restaurant already, since Felix had told him to get there extra early, and if that were the case, Jisung would just hide and wait for Minho to finally show up, and the plan would go on like usual.

Still, as Jisung hurried along down the sidewalk, he couldn’t help but feel like something was off.

Maybe it was the weather.

It was still chilly outside, and the rooftops of the buildings were dusted with a thin layer of snow, illuminated by the gentle yellow glow from the lamplit streets. With his hood pulled up, Jisung could barely hear the muffled chatter of pedestrians walking by and the slight crunch of hardened snow beneath his boots. There was an almost magical feel to the brisk evening air, a different kind of cold from the stale rink air that Jisung had gotten so used to.

If Jisung had to describe it, it was the perfect weather for a romantic date, and Jisung hated it.

It wasn’t that he usually hated nights like these. Jisung was unfortunately a sucker for romance, and he knew full well the romantic appeal of a breezeless winter night, perfect for couples to wander about town, hand in hand, huddled close to each other for warmth.

The problem was, Jisung wanted moments like that for himself, and after a week of feeling like his crush on Felix was looking ever the more hopeless, a part of Jisung couldn’t help but want to scowl and hiss at every happy couple that passed him by.

On the bright side, surely even Chan and Minho wouldn’t be impervious to the influence of romantic nights like these, so if anything, at least Jisung would be able to sleep well tonight knowing he’d done his best to help try and set up his friends.

As Jisung entered the restaurant, however, his frown only deepened.

Chan had recently dyed his hair a vibrant red, making him impossible to miss, and yet he was most definitely not here inside the restaurant. The waiting area of the restaurant was practically empty other than the hostess, who smiled at Jisung as he entered and offered to take his coat from him.

“Oh, no, it’s fine,” Jisung awkwardly said, trying his best to smile politely back. “I’m still waiting for someone.”

“Of course,” the hostess smiled back. “Do you have a reservation?”

“Yeah, at six? It should be under Minho or Chan.”

The hostess glanced down at her little notebook, before she looked back at Jisung with a warm smile. “Ah, yes, your friend mentioned something like that when he made the reservation. A table for two for Jisung and Felix, correct?”

Jisung blinked back owlishly.

“Wait, for Jisung and Felix? But shouldn’t it be—”

“Jisung? What are you doing here?”

Jisung whirled around at the sound of Felix’s voice, and immediately, his breath caught in his throat.

Jisung had always known that Felix was the most handsome person alive, but right now, as Felix stood there before him, dressed in a dapper navy suit, his hair slicked back with hair gel and a light blush on his freckled cheeks, there was only one word Jisung could only think of to describe him.

Gorgeous.

“Oh, h-hey, Felix,” Jisung stammered, struggling to keep calm. “Minho texted me saying he’d be late, so I came to make sure we didn’t miss our reservation. Why are you here?”

Felix immediately frowned at Jisung’s words.

“Wait, that’s why I’m here too. Chan told me he was going to be late, something about a last-minute assignment he had to finish up, so I thought I should come over to check.”

“Really?” Jisung echoed, his brain lagging a little as he tried to focus on Felix’s words and not the barely visible glow of lip gloss on Felix’s lips. When he did finally process Felix’s words though, Jisung frowned too.

“Hold up, Chan’s late too? That can’t be a coincidence… right?”

As if on cue, the sound of a text notification rang out from Jisung and Felix’s pockets. Exchanging a glance, they both pulled out their phones.

Felix squinted down at his screen.

“It’s Chan.”

“Mine’s from Minho,” Jisung said, glaring at the notifications that’d popped up on the screen.

_Jisung has been added to [Operation JiLix]_

_Jisung’s nickname has been set to Lovesick Fool_

**Lee Know  
** Have fun on your date <3

Jisung let out a loud groan.

“We’ve been fooled, Lix,” Jisung whined.

“I know, can you believe it?” Felix sighed, rolling his eyes as he showed Jisung his messages. Chan had sent Felix a selfie of himself and Minho making faces at the camera, along with a text that simply read, “Enjoy your dinner with Jisung! 😘”

“I can’t believe they saw through our plan,” Felix said with a shake of his head, though a bemused smile was starting to show on his face. “What about you? What’d Minho say?”

“Oh, uh, something not as nice,” Jisung hastily deflected, shoving his phone back in his pocket before Felix could see the name of the group chat.

He should’ve known that Minho and Chan had been working to set him and Felix up in secret. Minho and Chan had been dropping subtle hints all year to try and convince Jisung to confess to Felix, and like a coward, Jisung had simply ignored them. Now that Jisung had taken to trying to set Minho and Chan up, he supposed it was in their right to turn his own plan against him.

He wasn’t going to tell Felix about that though.

Jisung was a coward through and through when it came to feelings after all.

“So… what do we do now?”

Jisung looked up. He recognized the tone in Felix’s voice, the slight inflection that suggested that Felix was trying to not sound as excited as he actually was. From the way Felix’s eyes were now purposefully looking to the side, Jisung realized that his irritation must have been showing too strongly on his face, and now he’d made Felix feel bad for taking the situation lightly.

Jisung cleared his throat.

“Well, we’re here already, and Chan did tell us to have a nice dinner…”

Glancing back towards Felix, Jisung grinned when the hopeful glimmer returned to Felix’s eyes. It was just like Felix to look at the bright side of the situation, to not be weighed down by the failure of Operation MinChan and instead be excited about the opportunity to eat good food. Felix might not’ve known why Jisung was particularly annoyed that they’d been tricked, but Jisung would never let that stop him from making sure that Felix was enjoying himself.

It was times like these that Jisung was glad he could read Felix like an open book.

They spent so much time together that it was easy to see when Felix was feeling uncomfortable, and just as easy to know how to make him feel better as well.

Jisung supposed that was one of the many reasons why he’d developed a crush on Felix so easily. With Felix, things were straightforward and simple, and Jisung would do anything to protect their friendship.

“Let’s go eat and make Chan and Minho regret not coming here for the food,” Felix said, hooking his arm with Jisung’s and dragging him over to the hostess. As she led them away to their table, Jisung smiled fondly at the way Felix was practically skipping along with excitement.

Jisung would hunt Minho and Chan down another time.

For now, even if it wasn’t real, even if it might never be real…

Jisung was going to enjoy his date.

* * *

Dinner was wonderful.

Despite his initial annoyance over being played by Minho and Chan, Felix had to admit that he was thoroughly enjoying his time with Jisung.

It’d been a while since Felix had gotten the chance to go out and do something special with Jisung.

Felix had been busy preparing for a dance showcase during the past week, which had left Felix running nonstop between his classes and the dance studio while struggling to stay on top his homework. Out of sheer stubbornness, Felix had even refused to skip hockey practice, which had unfortunately left Felix with absolutely no free time to do anything that wasn’t work.

Felix hadn’t realized how much he normally looked forward to his usual hangouts with Jisung until now. After a week of not spending time with Jisung outside of practice, Felix had started to miss his best friend. He missed listening to Jisung rambling for hours about his latest interests, missed hearing his hilarious jokes and lame puns, and most of all missed eating together with Jisung, who always looked so happy about food.

It was why, after their main dishes had been served, Felix’s first instinct had been to share his meal with Jisung.

“Here, try this!”

Felix cut up a piece of his steak and stabbed it with his fork before he held it out to Jisung, excitedly waiting for Jisung to eat it.

He frowned slightly when he noticed Jisung pause, his eyes glancing around at the other diners around them, like he was suddenly conscious of any stray gazes that might be watching them. Felix had fed Jisung like this countless times when they got meals together in the university’s bustling cafeteria, so it struck Felix as strange that Jisung would suddenly be self-conscious.

Despite it all, Jisung quickly leaned forward and bit the piece of steak off Felix’s fork. Like usual, Jisung’s cheeks puffed out slightly as he chewed, and the expression he made as he savored his food brought a smile to Felix’s face.

Without really thinking, Felix softly laughed, “You’re really cute when you’re enjoying your food.”

Jisung immediately choked.

He’d been in the middle of swallowing his food, and as he tried keep his coughing under control and down some water, Felix was left feeling confused by Jisung's reaction.

It wasn’t the first time they’d teasingly complimented each other like this. It was almost their special thing at this point, to hype each other up whenever they could, so Felix wasn’t sure why Jisung suddenly seemed flustered by the comment.

Felix asked, “You okay?”

“Yep, perfectly fine!” Jisung replied, just a little too enthusiastically as he took another large sip of water. “Here, you should try this too.”

Jisung portioned out a bite of his pasta and held it up, spoon-feeding it to Felix, whose thoughts were temporarily distracted as the flavors exploded in his mouth. However, as Felix leaned back in his seat, enjoying his food, a thought struck him as he glanced around at the other tables.

They were currently surrounded by other couples enjoying their dinners. It was Valentine’s Day after all, and the restaurant had gone all out with the theme, roses and flickering candles on every table, dimmed orange lights, and light jazz in the background. It was the exact atmosphere Felix had imagined for Chan and Minho’s date, perfect except for the fact that it was Jisung and Felix on the date, not them.

Felix glanced back towards Jisung, who had gone back to devouring his food. Felix had the feeling he knew the answer to the question that’d suddenly popped into his mind, but out of sheer curiosity, he asked aloud, “Hey, Jisung, is this what you’d call a date?”

Jisung’s hand froze in the middle of taking another bite of his food, his fork still halfway to his gaping wide mouth. Almost mechanically, Jisung closed his mouth, set his food down, and gulped.

“Uh, I guess?” Jisung stammered, trying to keep his hands extremely still as he forced an innocent smile on his face. “I mean, two people, sitting together, having a romantic dinner on Valentine’s day, that’s what people probably would call a date.”

“Hmmm.”

“But like, we’re not dating, so I guess, this is more like friend date?”

Felix watched as Jisung rambled on, gesturing his hands around in a non-sensible manner, as if he were trying to distract himself from the subject at hand. It was rare to see Jisung so flustered, but at the same time, it was almost endearing to see this side of Jisung, who almost always put on a bravado of confidence.

At the same time, it only confirmed Felix’s suspicions.

So Jisung was also aware that this was a date.

It explained why he was a little more nervous than usual. They often made special plans together, but they’d never called it a date before. Felix supposed that was normal, since they were just good friends, but there was something deep down inside of Felix that liked the idea of calling it a date.

Was it weird, to like the prospect of being on a romantic date with your friend?

Despite liking romantic things, Felix admittedly had very little experience with romance, and he hadn’t really thought about having a crush before. He’d come to Korea for the sole purpose of joining JYP University’s prestigious dance program, determined to focus all of his attention on dance, but now that he thought about it, he really had gotten sidetracked. Through Chan, Felix had ended up picking up ice hockey again, and after Jisung had joined the team, any doubts Felix once had about playing on the team had vanished. Felix did like the sport, but it was getting to see Jisung that truly made every practice and game enjoyable for him, and Felix was certainly guilty of spending a lot of his free time with Jisung.

Jisung had fallen silent again in the time that it’d taken for Felix to think. He was staring at Felix with a curious look that meant he was waiting for what Felix had to say.

Felix had always liked that about Jisung. He was always eager to know what Felix had on his mind, and yet he also never rushed Felix through his thought process. He seemed content to simply wait and give Felix as much time as he needed to put his thoughts into words, and even now, despite all the things Felix had said to fluster him, Jisung was giving him the time to think.

Felix stared at Jisung’s eyes as he thought. He’d probably stared at Jisung like this a thousand times, sometimes from an even closer distance, and yet Felix felt like only now was he truly seeing Jisung.

Felix wondered how he’d never noticed how bright Jisung’s eyes were. Even now, they seemed to sparkle, illuminated by the flickering glow of the candlelight as they stared back at Felix, unmoving and gentle. He had the sudden urge to reach out and grab Jisung’s hand, just to feel the warmth of Jisung’s body against his skin, as if it wasn’t enough to just have Jisung sit so close in front of him.

Was this what it was like to like someone?

Felix didn’t know.

He wanted to think it was, but at the same time, he was worried. He treasured Jisung as his friend, and he didn’t want to risk stretching their precious friendship thin by confessing to feelings he didn’t have words for yet. Maybe it would be better to keep quiet for now, take a good look at his feelings, wait for another day…

Felix suddenly recalled Chan’s words from that abysmal morning walk at the start of winter break. There had been pain in Chan’s eyes when he told Felix to trust himself, pain from the unspoken words Chan had once wanted to say to someone he treasured, words he’d lost the opportunity to voice.

Felix knew why Chan had told him that now. Felix would rather regret an opportunity taken than an opportunity missed, and now, staring back at Jisung, Felix realized what he had to do.

He didn’t know what to call these feelings sprouting inside of his heart, the steady and joyful warmth that was pulsing through his veins, but there was one thing Felix knew.

He liked spending time with Jisung like this.

Even if this wasn’t a real date, Felix liked having this special moment of time that he could share with Jisung, liked the warm feeling bubbling inside his chest whenever Jisung smiled at him with his big round eyes, and he didn’t want it to stop.

Felix took a deep breath.

He knew what he wanted to say now.

* * *

Jisung was nervous.

Felix had been deep in thought for a while now, his eyes fixed on Jisung so intently that it felt like he was staring into Jisung’s soul.

Jisung had a good idea of what Felix was probably thinking about. It couldn’t have been a coincidence that Felix had fallen silent after suddenly asking if this was a date, and Jisung knew he’d reacted a little too strongly to Felix’s usual compliments. Despite his best efforts, the context of the situation had caught up to him, and now Jisung was worried about what Felix would have to say. Had he caught onto Jisung’s feelings? Was he going to reject him?

So when Felix finally opened his mouth to speak, Jisung held his breath.

“Let’s do this again, Jisung,” Felix said, smiling softly at the way Jisung’s eyes widened. “Let’s go on a date again.”

Jisung’s heart was thudding painfully loud against his ribcage, so loud he was sure Felix could hear it.

Struggling to keep his voice steady, Jisung hesitantly asked, “As friends?”

The corners of Felix’s eyes crinkled upwards as the freckled boy let out a chuckle. Reaching over to lightly punch Jisung on the shoulder, Felix exclaimed, “I’m asking you out on a romantic date, you idiot!”

Now Jisung was sure Felix could hear his heart beating. It was hammering in his chest now, similar to that euphoric feeling Jisung sometimes felt when he’d had too much caffeine. As he struggled to find the right words to respond, Felix spoke up again.

“Of course, if you don’t want to, that’s totally fine too,” Felix hastily backtracked, with that sincere smile that Jisung loved so much. “I understand if you want to just stay as friends, or—”

“Felix,” Jisung cut in, before immediately pausing again to reorganized his thoughts. Felix stared back at him innocently, patiently waiting before Jisung suddenly groaned, “Damn, this is so not how I thought I was going to confess.”

Felix blinked blankly back.

“Confess?”

“Yes, confess,” Jisung said, before sucking in a deep breath and continuing, “Felix, I’ve had a crush on you since like the day we met. Of course I’d love to go on a date with you.”

Felix stared.

“Wait, you have a crush on me?”

“I do,” Jisung fully admitted, deciding he had nothing left to lose. “It’s why Minho and Chan tricked us going into this date instead of them. They’ve been trying to get me to confess to you for a while now, but I never thought you’d be the one to properly ask me on a date first.”

“Jisung, I…” Felix trailed off, his expression morphing into something akin to worry. Jisung knew Felix would react like that. Felix was too kind after all, and the thought that he’d been oblivious to Jisung’s feelings for so long was sure to make him feel bad, but it couldn’t be helped. It was only right that Felix learned the truth about Jisung’s feelings now, because Jisung didn’t know when would be his next opportunity to voice them.

Hoping to make Felix feel better, Jisung reached over and gently squeezed Felix’s hand. He said softly, “Hey, there’s no need to feel bad. I’ve been hiding my feelings pretty well, and I know you weren’t planning to get into a relationship any time soon, so it only makes sense that you haven’t noticed.”

“But still…”

“Look on the bright side. If you hadn’t asked me on a date, I wouldn’t be confessing to you here now,” Jisung said, squeezing Felix’s hand a little tighter. “It made me really happy to hear that from you, so you should be happy too!”

Felix’s mouth formed a little pout as he also placed his hand over Jisung’s. “Since when did you get all wise about feelings? I thought you didn’t have any experience with romance.”

“I don’t,” Jisung shrugged, a grin tugging at his lips. “But I’m a songwriter, which automatically qualifies me as a philosopher and a poet!”

“Hey, I was trying to compliment you, not give you a reason to flex!” Felix scoffed, though he was starting to smile too. “Really, Jisung, I wonder why you make me so happy.”

“I do?”

Felix’s gaze turned a little more thoughtful as he returned his hands to his lap.

“Yeah, that’s actually why I thought it’d be nice to go on another date with you,” Felix said quietly, his hands fiddling with the edge of the tablecloth. “Obviously, I feel bad now, since I feel like I didn’t treat the feelings you had for me seriously enough, but even then, I’m not going to take my word back.”

The butterflies in Jisung’s stomach returned in full force.

“So you still want to go on a date together?”

Felix nodded.

“I know it’s probably not the answer you were hoping for, Jisung, and I’m sorry for that, but now that I know you have a crush on me, well… I know I’m being selfish by saying this, but I hope you’ll give me some time to come up with a proper answer for you,” Felix said.

He looked down as he gently placed a hand over his heart.

“I don’t know yet, if the feelings I have here are what you’d call love, but do you know what Chan said? He told me not to doubt myself if I were to ever find someone I like, and I can tell you this, Jisung. If this is what a romantic date is like, then you’re the only person I’d ever want to do this with.”

Jisung was lost for words. All that came out was a tiny “Really?” which only made Felix smile even wider.

“Yes, really, so would you be willing to wait for my answer?” Felix asked, smiling so brightly that Jisung could’ve sworn he could see stars sparkling in Felix’s eyes. His gaze was shy though, unable to hold eye contact with Jisung for long, and for a moment, Jisung wondered if maybe Felix’s heart was racing just like his.

Like usual though, the serious mood didn’t last for long. Still giddy with happiness, Jisung casually rested his chin on a propped up fist and bopped Felix on the nose to get his attention.

When Felix turned his curious gaze towards him, Jisung grinned, “You know I’d wait an eternity for you, right? Because I’m in love with you.”

Jisung cackled as Felix turned bright red and buried his face in his hands.

“You’re such a flirt!” Felix huffed, aiming a kick at Jisung under the table. Jisung still didn’t stop laughing despite the pain, and as their bickering slowly shifted back into their usual conversation, Jisung still couldn’t wipe the big smile from off his face.

He had never been so happy to be in love.

* * *

A little over a month later, they shared their first kiss.

It didn’t happen because of some special event like in the movies Felix often watched with Jisung. It was simply another day of going back to the dorms after a tiring practice, huddled together in the cold, their hands tightly intertwined with each other. Jisung had walked Felix all the way back to his door, and like usual, they’d lingered in the doorway of Felix’s room, their fingers interlaced, neither eager to pull away.

They’d gone on two more dates since the last, and each one had just as enjoyable as Felix had remembered, but for the most part, the knowledge that Jisung liked him hadn’t changed much in their relationship. They still hung out in their free time, got dinner together after practice, cuddled together during movie nights, but now that Felix had decided to take a good look at his own feelings, he couldn’t help but admit something was indeed different.

There was a special warmth in Jisung’s eyes that Felix hadn’t noticed before, a gaze as intense as it was gentle. It left Felix with a fluttering feeling inside his stomach whenever he caught Jisung staring, and that feeling only intensified when Jisung would look away with a flustered expression, as if he wasn’t used to getting caught. It got to the point where Felix was starting to have trouble focusing during practice. He would get so preoccupied marveling at Jisung’s skating and cheering whenever his best friend did some cool skating maneuver that he occasionally forgot he had his own role to play on the team as well.

It was a strange feeling at first.

Felix had never been so aware of how much a single person could consume his thoughts at every waking moment, and yet the more Felix came to terms with it, the happier Felix felt. Through each passing day, Felix was learning how much he enjoyed having Jisung in his life, and each moment he spent away from Jisung only intensified his longing for Jisung’s presence.

Felix wondered if this was how Jisung must have felt when he’d become aware of his feelings. It was crazy to think that this might’ve been Jisung’s experience for so long, crazier yet that Jisung had hid it so well from Felix, who now, after barely a month, had already had enough.

And so, standing there in the doorway, staring down their intertwined fingers, Felix knew what he wanted to do.

Slowly, he lifted his eyes up to Jisung’s face.

“Hey, Jisung?”

“Mhmm?”

Jisung too brought his eyes up to meet Felix’s, his expression full of the longing that Felix now knew too well. Felix cracked a smile at that, reaching up to Jisung’s face and gently tucking some stray strands of hair behind Jisung’s ear.

Quietly, Felix murmured, “Can I kiss you?”

For a moment, Jisung didn’t move.

“Are you sure?”

Jisung’s voice was barely a whisper, like he didn’t know if he could believe what he’d just heard. Teasingly, Felix looped his arms around loosely around Jisung’s neck, grinning, “Of course I’m sure. Or are you saying I’m the only one curious about what it’s like to kiss—”

Felix didn’t get to finish his sentence.

Jisung surged forward as he kissed Felix, pressing his lips firmly against Felix’s and pulling Felix’s body in a little closer. Jisung’s lips were still slightly cold from the weather outside, and it sent an electrifying tingle down Felix’s spine as he closed his eyes, lost in the sensation of Jisung’s lips on his own.

When they finally broke apart for air, their foreheads still touching slightly, Felix couldn’t help but smile.

“This is going to sound stupid after everything that just happened, but I think I’m in love with you too, Jisung.”

“Really?” Jisung laughed, leaning in and kissing the tip of Felix’s nose. “What could’ve possibly made you realize that?”

“It certainly wasn’t that kiss just now,” Felix teased, his eyes crinkling up at Jisung. “I could’ve kissed my teddy bear better than that.”

“Hey! You can’t expect me to be a good kisser when that was my first kiss!” Jisung protested.

“Well, it’s a good thing that we’ll be getting lots of practice, right?”

Felix waggled his eyebrows suggestively back at Jisung, who immediately reddened and started spluttering for words. Felix took the chance to give Jisung another kiss, gently brushing his lips against Jisung’s before he latched onto Jisung for a hug and buried his face into Jisung’s shoulder.

“Hey, what are you getting all embarrassed about now?” Jisung teased, poking at Felix’s ears, which were now burning red.

Felix didn’t look up. He realized now that he didn’t need to, because even without looking, Felix knew what expression Jisung would have on his face. They remained standing there for a while, their bodies snugly pressed against each other, before Felix hooked his chin over Jisung’s shoulder and let out a soft and content sigh.

“Hey Jisung, do you want to be my boyfriend?”

This time, Jisung didn’t hesitate.

“Fuck yes I do,” Jisung muttered under his breath, and Felix giggled as he squeezed his arms tighter around Jisung’s back, nuzzling his chin into the crook of Jisung’s neck.

In that moment, basking in Jisung’s warmth as Jisung nestled into Felix’s hug, Felix was content.

Everything was perfect, and Felix knew he was never letting go.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this ended up being kinda long, and the pacing's a little weird, and i've probably missed some mistakes cause it's two in the morning, but with all that said and done....
> 
> JILIX!!!!!!! :DDDDDDDDD


	12. Shooting Practice (ft. Minho is also a dumbass)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took a while for me to update T_T I probably rewrote this chapter like four times before I finally got something I was kinda okay with, so that's why this took a lot longer than usual for me to write... On the bright side, hopefully this chapter will provide some answers as to why MinChan is being... MinChan (^_^;;) 
> 
> Thank you again for reading, and I hope you'll enjoy this chapter!

Two weeks after Jisung and Felix announced to the team that they were dating, Jisung asked Minho if he could help him with shooting practice.

As expected, Minho agreed without any suspicion, though he had raised an eyebrow when Jisung specified the time and date.

“You sure you’re going to be awake for that?” Minho had asked, when Jisung asked if he’d be okay going to an early morning session.

“I’ll be fine,” Jisung lied. He knew he would regret it when the time came, but Jisung had wanted to make sure he and Minho could be alone during practice. That meant going to the seven a.m. early morning public hockey sessions that no one in their right mind would go to, and Tuesdays happened to be the days when neither Minho nor Jisung had morning classes. To convince Minho even further, Jisung added, “Besides, I didn’t want to take up your time in the evening. You’re busy enough with your schedule.”

It was true.

Even now, just glancing at Minho’s schedule was more than enough to give Jisung a headache. Between the various classes Minho still had to take for his major, he had labs to attend, reports to write, plenty of tests to study for, and still, Minho somehow had time to help teach dance class twice a week, go to hockey practice three times a week, and then play in a hockey game on weekends as well. As if that wasn’t enough, Minho had joined an intro boxing class “for fun” (“So I can punch the lights out of that dude who tried to hit me with a puck the next time I see him,” Minho had laughed.), and even more recently, Minho had also start visiting their music studio in the evenings, if only to check up on Chan.

Chan practically lived in their music studio at this point, leaving only to go to hockey and class, and sometimes he didn’t even go to class either, so busy working on his senior portfolio. In a way, it was lucky Minho lived with Chan, because Jisung and Changbin could always count on Minho to convince Chan to take a break and go home when their own attempts had failed. Even on the days he couldn’t convince Chan to leave, Minho made sure to leave Chan with plenty of snacks and water before he left, though Jisung was pretty sure Minho would gladly stayed with Chan in the studio throughout the night if he wasn’t so concerned about leaving Dori home alone.

If that wasn’t proof that Minho loved Chan, Jisung didn’t know what else could be.

It was for that exact reason that Jisung had lured Minho out for shooting practice.

Jisung had been thinking about it ever since he’d started dating Felix, but since it was technically thanks to Minho and Chan that he and Felix were dating at all, Jisung supposed he could push off meddling with his best friend’s love life and focus instead on spending the first few weeks of his relationship enjoying his time with Felix.

Now that two weeks had passed though, Jisung decided enough was enough.

He and Minho weren’t the type to talk about romance, but Operation MinChan had failed miserably, and Minho had technically intervened in Jisung’s love life first, so Jisung felt he had every right to now meddle in Minho’s love life back.

As expected, the morning hockey session was empty. Even the attendant at the front booth seemed to startle out of her drowsiness at the sight of people, and after paying for their tickets, Minho and Jisung lazily got dressed and got on the ice, setting up in silence.

The cold air did its best to draw Jisung out from his drowsiness, and eventually, Jisung and Minho started their practice in earnest. For a while, there was nothing but the crisp sound of metal blades carving into the ice, loud echoing bangs of pucks slamming into the boards, and the occasional chime of Jisung hitting a puck into one of the goal posts, whenever Jisung got particularly lucky. As they warmed up, and the rink began to liven up with the sound of their laughter, Jisung paused for a moment at the red line, made a show of stretching out his limbs, and then started slowly skating his way down the ice towards Minho while stick-handling a puck.

“So, you and Chan,” Jisung started.

As expected, Minho faltered in net, and Jisung scored an easy goal, tapping the puck through the five-hole. In retaliation, Minho threw his stick at him.

“Jisung, I thought we were here to practice your shooting, not so you could get cheap shots,” Minho grumbled as Jisung gracefully caught Minho’s stick and handed it back to him.

“I’m helping you train your concentration,” Jisung nonchalantly replied before hurriedly skating away back to the red line, far out of Minho’s reach.

“My concentration is perfectly fine!” Minho shouted, settling into position as Jisung slowly started to snake his way down the ice, eyes on Minho’s movements.

“Anyways, so are you and Chan—” Jisung took a wrist shot, and the puck landed soundly in Minho’s waiting glove. “Damn, I thought you’d take the bait.”

Minho chucked the puck at Jisung’s head. Jisung didn’t even bother to dodge, watching as the puck missed by a couple meters and went careening down the length of the ice.

“What are you trying to get at, Jisung?” Minho snapped, angrily flopping down onto the ice.

Jisung ignored him. Dragging a bucket of pucks with him, he slowly lined up ten pucks in a row, and, when Minho made no move to get up, Jisung said, “For every goal I score, you’re going to answer one of my questions, truthfully.”

Jisung could see Minho raise an eyebrow from behind his mask. Still sitting on the ice with his legs out in front of him, Minho banged his stick on the ice, taunting, “Fine, but if you miss all of them, you’re doing 30 laps.”

“Minho~!” Jisung whined, as he took his first shot.

Minho whacked it away lazily with his stick.

“Focus, Sungie. You’re not going to get any shots in with that attitude.”

Jisung rolled his eyes, but he started to focus as Minho said. Only the players with the fastest, hardest shots could hope to beat Minho’s insane reflexes one on one, but Jisung wasn’t one of JYP’s best players for nothing. That, and this drill was a matter of speed, and Minho was giving Jisung a handicap by leaving the entire top shelf open as Minho remained sitting on the ice.

In quick succession, Jisung shot puck after puck towards Minho, his slap shots elevating each one into the air. Most of them bounced harmlessly off Minho’s chest or were batted away with Minho’s blocker. Minho even managed to headbutt a puck away from the net, but as he did so, Jisung shot his last puck straight over Minho’s shoulder into the goal.

Immediately, Minho leaned back, laying completely flat on the ice as he threw a tantrum, whining and kicking his skates in the air. Jisung ignored him, hollering his victory into the cold air of the empty rink. When he was done screaming, he immediately dashed up to Minho’s body and skidded to a halt right next to him, spraying snow all over Minho’s jersey. Teasingly, Jisung tapped Minho’s mask with the blade of his stick.

“Come on, Minho, you gotta answer one of my questions now.”

“If you’re going to ask me if I’m dating Chan again, the answer is still no,” Minho huffed, pushing away Jisung’s stick grumpily.

“Well, I’ll just ask a different question then,” Jisung said, hovering over his best friend. “You keep saying you’re not dating. Then answer me this, Minho. What’s stopping you and Chan from dating?”

Minho didn’t answer. Jisung poked at him with his stick again for good measure, and Minho chucked his glove at him.

“I hate you. I didn’t agree to this,” Minho grumbled.

“Yes, you did,” Jisung gleefully reminded him. “I got a goal in! Now answer my question.”

“The only thing stopping us from dating is the fact that we’re not interested in dating each other, that’s all,” Minho huffed, pushing himself back up into a sitting position.

Jisung pursed his lips together, irritation at Minho’s vague answer quickly replacing his previous excitement. He persisted, “Even though you’re both clearly in love with each other?”

“I’m not answering that,” Minho said, glaring at Jisung. “You only got one puck in the net, not two.”

Jisung narrowed his eyes at Minho. Without another word, he grabbed one of the stray pucks scattered on the ice with his hand and chucked it into the net.

“There. That’s two,” Jisung snapped, flopping down onto the ice so he could better glare back into Minho’s eyes. “Now answer my question. Seriously, I’ve had enough of watching you two skate around the issue all year. I know you’re in love with Chan; I haven’t watched you pine over him this entire year for nothing, Minho, and from everything that’s happened this year, it’s almost too obvious that Chan’s in love with you too. So why are you both so insistent on this whole ‘we’re just friends’ schtick?”

Minho stared down at the ice for a long time, before finally, he commented, “That was another question.”

Jisung’s temper flared up, but just as he reached out for more pucks to maybe chuck at Minho, Minho let out a light-hearted snort.

“Okay, okay, no need to be so aggressive,” Minho said, stretching his arms out in front of him. “This is what I get for successfully setting you and Felix up, huh?”

“So you’re going to answer my questions?” Jisung pouted back, gathering up a few pucks just in case Minho needed some more encouragement.

“Yeah, as much as I don’t want to,” Minho sighed, tugging off his helmet and shaking out his hair. “I suppose you all would’ve learned the truth eventually.”

“What do you mean?”

Minho pursed his lips together, like he was thinking about what he wanted to say. Finally, he heaved another sigh and said, “You were asking why we’re still just friends even though you guys think we like each other, right? Well, the answer’s simple really. Chan confessed to me, and I rejected him. That’s all.”

For a moment, Jisung just stared at Minho, who smiled back like there was nothing wrong with what he just said.

“Chan confessed to you?” Jisung finally repeated monotonously, his breath coming out white wisps. “When?”

“Last year? Right after we were voted captains.”

“And you rejected him?”

“Yep.”

“Why?”

Minho leaned back on his hands and turned his face up towards the ceiling.

“Would you believe me if I said I didn’t return Chan’s feelings?”

Jisung stared long and hard at Minho before replying with a scoff, “No.”

“Good, I wouldn’t believe me either,” Minho laughed, suddenly flopping back down onto his back.

When Minho didn’t say anything else, Jisung said, “So, are you going to tell me the real reason, or…?”

Minho’s face scrunched up like he was recalling a particularly bad memory. For a while he didn’t respond, simply staring up at the white metal beams supporting the ceiling like he was trying to calculate whether he could will it to collapse with just his gaze.

Jisung waited patiently for Minho, knowing he would have to crack eventually. It was the closest he’d ever gotten Minho to talk about his feelings, and if what Minho was saying were true, that he really had rejected Chan, there was no way Jisung was letting him off without an explanation.

Finally, Minho seemed to give up on trying to calculate whether there was a scientifically realistic way to make the ceiling collapse in on them. Minho suddenly sat up again and said, “You know how we got into an argument last year?”

“Yes…?”

As Jisung raised an eyebrow, the answer hit him just as Minho sighed, “Well, guess who decided to hold a grudge for the first time in his life?”

“You rejected Chan because you were still mad at him?” Jisung said, his eyes bugging wide open. When Minho nodded, Jisung took a puck and threw it at Minho’s chest. It bounced off harmlessly and scattered away on the ice. “What the fuck were you thinking?”

“I know right?” Minho’s laugh was hollow as it echoed around in the empty rink. “The one time I hold a grudge, and it royally fucks me over.”

“I won’t disagree with that,” Jisung said in disbelief, frowning at Minho like he was physically in pain from what Minho had just said. “Seriously, why would you do that to yourself, Minho?”

“Because at the time, I was serious,” Minho said, his expression turning solemn. “Sure, I had a crush on Chan, but after a fight like that, I realized that if we could get into a disagreement so bad that we almost stopped being friends, then there was no way I was ready to be in a relationship with Chan.”

Jisung’s expression fell. Minho had always been someone who stayed true to himself, so of course he would have a valid reason to have made the decisions he did about the type of relationship he wanted with Chan. Jisung felt bad now for having doubted the reasoning behind Minho’s decision.

At least he did, until Minho sighed, “Well, that’s the excuse I came up with to make myself feel better about having to spend an entire summer thinking about how I could be planning dates with Chan instead of just lounging about all day. But yeah, the real reason was that I was just annoyed he had the audacity to confess to me right after we’d ignored each other for two weeks.”

“Minho! I was just about to feel bad for you!” Jisung huffed, crossing his arms across his chest and fixing Minho with a pout. “I have half the mind to tell you to go and confess to Chan right now!”

“And ruin my wonderful friendship with him? No thank you,” Minho soullessly laughed, reach over to lightly slap the front of Jisung’s helmet. “Besides, even if I hadn’t been mad at him, I probably would’ve rejected him anyways, and I think Chan only confessed to me because he knew I was going to say no.”

“What do you mean?”

“Chan’s the captain, and I’m the assistant captain,” Minho said with a wave of his hand. “No way either of us were going to risk causing trouble for the team by being in a relationship.”

Jisung groaned, slapping his glove to the front of his mask.

“I hate that you’re both so responsible,” Jisung grumbled. “So what now? You’re going to wait until the season’s over to start dating?”

“What? No, of course not.”

Jisung felt his headache come back in full force.

“You’re not even going to confess to him?”

“I told you Jisung. I think Chan and I are better off just being friends,” Minho replied. “Besides, after I turned Chan down, he told me that he only confessed his feelings to me so I was aware of how he felt before we started working together as captains. He even said he was glad I rejected him because it’d help him get over his crush on me. There’s no way he still likes me after all that.”

“You’re kidding me,” Jisung groaned, chucking another puck at Minho before hastily sliding backwards on the ice, just out of Minho’s reach when Minho shot him a glare. “You’re seriously telling me you can’t see that Chan’s still madly in love with you?”

“As much as I’d like that to be true, it’s not,” Minho grumbled. “Why else would he keep insisting we’re nothing but friends?”

Jisung stared at Minho in disbelief. Suddenly, Jisung was not at all surprised that they’d been having so much trouble trying to set Minho and Chan up together. He let out a long sigh as he slowly said, “Minho. Have you ever wondered if maybe he’s only saying that because he thinks you’re the one who just wants to be friends?”

Minho was in the middle of rolling his eyes when he suddenly froze. His eyes suddenly, and from the way his jaw fell open ever so slightly as he snapped his eyes towards Jisung, Jisung could tell that no, Minho had not in fact thought of that.

“Shit, you’re right,” Minho gasped, slapping one hands over his mouth. “I haven’t done anything to make it seem like I actually like him, have I?”

Jisung just raised an eyebrow back at Minho. “You’re really bad at this romance thing, huh.”

“Hey! I don’t want to hear that from a kid who only just got into a relationship!” Minho snapped back.

“That’s still two more weeks of a relationship than you!” Jisung taunted, sticking his tongue out at Minho, who rolled his eyes back and simply pouted, knowing that he didn’t have a retort to that. Jisung pulled on a more serious expression and continue, “Listen, I’m not saying you guys have to start dating now, but Minho, you should at least let Chan know how you feel. Chan deserves to know, and I think you guys deserve the chance to at least consider if you want a future together, you know?”

“He’s going to think I’m a fucking idiot,” Minho muttered under his breath, scowling even more than he already was.

“You know Chan would never think that about you,” Jisung said with a roll of his eyes.

“Yeah, I know,” Minho sighed softly, his expression suddenly morphing into something a lot more sullen. “I just… what if you’re wrong? What if he actually only thinks of me as a friend now?”

“Well, you’re going to have to face the consequences of being a dumbass for rejecting him then,” Jisung huffed, earning a half-bemused chuckle from Minho, “but you’re not going to know until you talk to him, so promise me you won’t give up, Minho. Promise me you’ll at least shoot your shot. That’s all I’m asking.”

Minho stared long and hard at Jisung, before finally, he let out a small sigh. Hanging his head slightly so that his bangs were hiding his eyes, Minho suddenly scoffed, “You know, Jisung, you’re forgetting that I’m a goalie.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I can shoot as many shots as I want, but it doesn’t mean I’m going to make any of them. Goalies don’t normally score goals after all.”

“Minho! Now is so not the time for stupid metaphors!” Jisung exclaimed, scrambling to his feet. He leapt at Minho ferociously, knocking Minho onto his back. As Minho let out a high-pitched squeal of laughter, Jisung continued punching Minho in the chest with his glove, knowing Minho wouldn’t be able to feel any of it beneath his pads. “If you’re going to make stupid metaphors, Chan’s heart is basically an empty net waiting for you to score, and even goalies make empty netters sometimes if they try!”

“Okay, okay, you know I was joking,” Minho laughed, slapping Jisung away with his stick as he pushed himself back up into a sitting position. He leaned forward thoughtfully, like he was mulling over his words, before quietly, Minho asked, “You really think I have a chance?”

Jisung finally broke into a smile.

“You’ve got so many chances, Minho. All you have to do is try.”

Minho glanced over at Jisung, the corners of his lips curling upwards ever so slightly.

“Fine, I promise I’ll at least take a shot at salvaging this mess,” Minho said softly, reaching out and patting the top of Jisung’s helmet. “Thank you for talking this out with me, Jisung.”

“Hey, that’s what best friends are for, right?” Jisung grinned back.

Minho rolled his eyes, even as his smile grew wider. Looking content, Minho put his helmet back on, and with some effort, he twisted around onto his knees and pushed himself back up into a standing position, wobbling a little like he always did. Even now, it was still funny to Jisung how unbalanced Minho always looked on the ice, especially because he was normally such a steady dancer.

Minho shot Jisung a side eye, which did little to stop the snickers coming from Jisung’s direction as Jisung also hopped back onto his feet.

“Well, now that that’s done…” Minho leaned to one side, stretching out his back before whirling around and smacking his stick against the back of Jisung’s butt pads. Minho cackled, “Go and get more pucks, Han Jisung! This is still shooting practice, and if you don’t score ten goals in the next five minutes, you’re buying me lunch!”

“WHAT? One on one against you? That’s impossible!” Jisung whined, even as he skated off, collecting the scattered pucks back into a pile by the blue line.

“Oh, is the great Han Jisung backing down from a challenge?”

Jisung scowled back at the twinkling in Minho’s eyes, before he licked his lips and hunched down, a puck on the blade of his stick as he prepared to sprint. He yelled down the ice, “Fine, but if I score ten goals, you’re paying for my next date with Felix!”

Minho’s laughter rang out loud and clear in the cold air, sounding freer and more relaxed than he’d been all week. Minho slapped his stick against the ice, taunting Jisung to go at him, and Jisung had to smile as he raced down the ice and took his first shot.


	13. A Heart to Heart

It was late Wednesday evening when Minho arrived home, surprised that the lights were on inside.

“Hey,” Chan said, waving from where he was sitting on the couch as Minho came in. Minho stopped and stared for a while, watching how the water from Chan’s wet hair trailed down the sides of his face and traced the lines of Chan’s jaw.

“You’re back,” Minho heard himself saying dumbly, as he threw his dance bag down at the door and kicked off his shoes.

“I missed my bed,” Chan replied with a soft laugh, fixing something on his laptop before glancing up at Minho. “And I kinda missed hanging out with you.”

Normally, Minho might’ve had a snarky retort prepared. He could see it in his mind, the things he could’ve replied with, an “Only kinda?” with a waggle of his eyebrows, or a roll of his eyes and a “Well, I didn’t miss you,” kind of retort.

Instead, Minho just plopped down next to Chan, sprawled his limbs out all over the couch, and said, “Yeah, me too.”

Chan scrunched his nose up.

“You’re being honest today,” he commented, twisting his head to scrutinize Minho. “What’s up?”

“What? I can’t be nice to you when I feel like it?” Minho huffed, kicking his feet up onto the coffee table. Chan looked like he was about to answer, but Minho cut him off. “Where’s Dori by the way?”

“He was begging to go outside, so I let him out,” Chan replied, his gaze growing more suspicious from the way Minho had tried to change the subject.

“So it’s just us two then,” Minho mumbled to himself, though clearly not quietly enough.

“It’s always just the two of us,” Chan said, rolling his eyes with a humored smile.

Half-jokingly, Minho rounded on Chan. “How dare you discount Dori like that.”

“You know what,” Chan laughed, “you’re right. If Dori’s our roommate too, maybe I should start asking him to pay rent.”

“He already does,” Minho giggled, collapsing against Chan and latching on even more when Chan tried to wriggle out of his grasp. “He pays in cuddles and cuteness.”

“Just like you?” Chan teased, turning his gaze on Minho.

Minho felt his brain short-circuit underneath Chan’s electrifying gaze.

It’d been a while since Minho had gotten the chance to cuddle up to Chan like this. Chan’s eyes had never looked more beautiful than this moment, with his eyes slightly creased in an upward curve and the brown of Chan’s eyes glowing with a warmth that made Minho feel special.

For a moment, Minho could almost believe it, what Jisung had told him yesterday at practice.

That maybe Chan was still in love with him too.

The thought left a fuzzy feeling in the pit of Minho’s stomach, and all of sudden, Chan’s face was a little too close for comfort.

Minho cleared his throat awkwardly as he sat up hastily, putting some distance between him and Chan on the couch. Almost predictably, Chan frowned at Minho’s reaction.

“Is everything okay?” Chan asked again, concern lacing his voice.

“Yeah, everything great,” Minho deflected, pushing off the couch and leaping up onto his feet. “Wow, I’m really hungry all of a sudden. You want something to eat?”

Chan raised an eyebrow at him, but thankfully, he didn’t push the issue any further. The conversation shifted like it usually did, to more casual things like what they did during the day and what they wanted to eat. Minho ended up making them both a large pot of instant ramyun, and for a while, they simply sat in silence, consuming the food they had before them.

Minho hadn’t exactly been lying when he’d said he was hungry. The hot food was more than enough to warm his body thoroughly, and with it, the worries that had plagued him seemed to disappear too. He’d been worrying about how to break the ice with Chan and confess his feelings to him, but it all seemed trivial in the haze of satisfaction he’d received from filling his empty stomach. There wasn’t a nice way to resolve the misunderstanding that had developed between them, which meant there was really only one way to go about this. 

In true Minho fashion, Minho decided he was done being scared.

As Chan took a large bite of his ramyun, Minho declared, “Chan, I’m in love with you.”

Chan immediately froze. His cheeks were still full as he stared at Minho, who simply shrugged back and turned back to his food. Chan slowly chewed his food, and when he finally swallowed it, the first thing he said was, “What?”

“Real elegant response there, Chan,” Minho snickered through a mouthful of noodles. Chan rolled his eyes and reached over to pull Minho’s food away from him.

Before Minho could protest, Chan said, “Minho, you’re in love with me?”

“Yeah, now can I have my ramyun back?”

“Minho, I—are you serious?”

“I’m serious about everything Chan, and right now, I’m more serious about my ramyun than my feelings for you, so if you don’t give me back my food…”

Chan immediately slid the bowl of ramyun back towards Minho with a still dumbfounded look on his face. As Minho happily dug back into his food, Chan commented, “Is this what you’ve been wanting to talk to me about?”

“Mhm,” Minho nodded. “You could tell I wanted to talk to you then?”

“I mean, you looked stressed, and you’ve been acting weird around me,” Chan replied. “Though I can’t say you look stressed anymore.”

“Well, I’ve got food,” Minho laughed, taking another bite before chewing thoughtfully and adding, “and I guess I’ve got you too.”

That brought a smile to Chan’s face, and it made Minho smile back. He hurriedly downed the rest of his food before pushing the bowl aside with a satisfied sigh.

“So, what’s your answer?”

The food had done wonders for Minho’s nerves, but even that couldn’t stop the creeping doubt that settled in the pits of Minho’s stomach as he watched Chan’s expression fall.

“Minho,” Chan began slowly, one of his hands closing into a fist. “I’m sorry…”

“Don’t be,” Minho said, keeping his voice as lighthearted as he could. “I rejected you too last year, remember? It’s kinda ironic that our positions have reversed, but I had the feeling that you’d moved on by now.”

“What, no, that’s not it.”

Minho frowned at Chan’s response. Chan gulped and continued, “Minho, you’re amazing, you know that right? I tried my hardest to respect the boundaries we decided upon for our friendship, thinking it would help me get over you, but it didn’t work in the end.”

That made Minho pause. Not daring to feel any more hopeful, he asked, “What do you mean?”

“I’m still in love with you too, Minho. I always have, and I’ll probably always be. No matter what our relationship may be like in the future, I can promise you that's the one thing that won’t ever change.”

“Then why… why are you sorry?”

A lump had formed in his throat, and Minho swallowed it along with the words he was scared to say.

_Are you sorry for failing in love with someone like me?_

As always, Chan seemed to know Minho’s thoughts, even without hearing them. Wordlessly, he reached out to cover his hand over Minho’s, and Minho immediately felt himself relax, the warmth encompassing his hand filling with the sense of calm that he usually found in Chan.

“I’m sorry, because I don’t think I can be in a romantic relationship with you yet,” Chan said quietly, his hand still a steady pressure around Minho’s. “I’m really happy that you love me too, Minho, but I’ve spent this entire year convincing myself that you’d never like me back in the way I like you. That’s what I thought you wanted to talk with me about today actually. I thought I was making you uncomfortable with my feelings, and I was prepared to give up on my feelings for good today.”

“Chan, I’m sorry, I didn’t realize I was making you feel that way,” Minho said, resting his other hand over Chan’s so that Chan’s hand was sandwiched between his own. It made Chan smile ever so slightly, as he squeezed Minho’s hand back.

“It’s not your fault. From how hard it was for you to confess, I can only imagine how hard of a time you were having too. I guess this just means we can’t read each other as well as we thought.”

“Well, we are just human after all,” Minho cheekily replied. As Chan’s smile slowly widened, Minho patted Chan on the hand again and said with more seriousness, “I meant it when I said there’s no need to be sorry though, Chan. I confessed to you because I recently realized I hadn’t been clear about my feelings towards you. I didn’t confess to you looking for a relationship either.”

“You didn’t?”

Minho shook his head. “Chan, look at how busy both you and I are. Even if I hadn’t been stupid and made you think I didn’t like you back, you really think either of us should be trying to fit time for a romantic relationship in our schedules?”

“I don’t know, I think I’d be able to find time to kiss the most beautiful man in the world,” Chan teased, and Minho’s face flushed red. Chan laughed at Minho’s reaction and continued, “You’re right though. One day, I want to be able to go on proper dates with you and kiss you as shamelessly as Jisung and Felix have done in front of us these past few weeks, but I’d like that to happen when I’m not spending all my time between a closet studio and dirty locker rooms.”

“Oh, I can think of a lot of things more shameless than kissing,” Minho snickered, waggling his eyebrows at Chan, who turned tomato red. Chan immediately used his free hand to hit Minho on the shoulder, though he made no move to free the hand still clutched in Minho’s hands. Minho laughed harder at that, picking Chan’s hand up and holding it gently as he propped his elbows up on the table. “I agree with everything you’ve said though, Chan. At the very least, I’d like to wait until we’re dong being worried parents for the team. I definitely don’t want to end up dating and then going to practice for the rest of the season having to hear all our teammates gloat about how they knew we liked each other back.”

“Of course that’s what you’d be concerned about,” Chan laughed, rolling his eyes.

“Come on, tell you don’t also find joy in the idea of torturing them a little more with our insistence on not dating,” Minho snorted.

Chan grinned back. “You know, at this rate, I wonder if they’ll attempt to confess our feelings to each other for us.”

“Well, they’ve already tried and failed to set us up on a date,” Minho cackled before he fell silent, staring simply at Chan’s hand in his.

Minho’s hands had always been small compared to Chan’s, and only now was he realized how steady of a presence they were against his own. He liked the way Chan’s hand fit in his, and despite his resolution to wait just a little longer, Minho wondered how long he would have to wait, before he could hold Chan’s hand like this, not just as friends, but as lovers.

“So, now that we both know how we feel about each other, what does that make us?” Minho, asked breaking the ice.

Chan too stared down at their intertwined hands, his voice sounding almost distant as he suggested, “Friends?”

“Friends,” Minho echoed, curling his fingers around Chan’s hand and smiling at the way Chan gripped his hand back. “For now, I think that suits us just fine, don’t you think?”

“For now,” Chan agreed, though his voice retained a sense of confidence as he looked into Minho’s eyes and continued, “One day though, I’d like to try being lovers.”

Minho smiled back.

“Me too, Chan. I’m looking forward to that day too."


End file.
